Second Man Sentenced in Kidnapping

A Chinese national who last year participated in the kidnapping of a 17-year-old San Marino youth was sentenced Monday to more than seven years in prison.

The case, in which a team of seven kidnappers in the United States and China tried to collect a $1.5-million ransom from the youth’s father, a Taiwanese developer, led to unprecedented law enforcement cooperation among the United States, China and Taiwan.

Xue Han Wang, 26, was sentenced to 85 months for hostage-taking. He pleaded guilty in April to the crime.

His accomplice, Xu Lin Wang, 27, also of China, was sentenced in October to 10 years on the same charges.

Xue Han Wang’s sentence was lighter than his accomplice’s because he provided investigators with assistance during their investigation, said Thom Mrozek), spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

Authorities say the two men, acting on orders from masterminds who are still at large, helped hold Kuan Nan “Johnny” Chen hostage last December.

Chen, a San Marino High School student, was home alone when he was abducted at gunpoint Dec. 15 and taken to a ramshackle Temple City home, where he was chained to a bed and blindfolded and gagged with duct tape. Chen was held for 20 days until the FBI rescued him.

Chen’s father, Fu Shun Chen, a wealthy Taiwanese developer, was on a business trip to Taiwan at the time. Kidnappers contacted him there and told him to take $1.5 million to a location in Fujian province in China.

The father immediately called San Marino police, who worked with the FBI, China’s Ministry of Public Security and Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau.

Though China and Taiwan do not maintain diplomatic relations, law enforcement from all three countries worked together to crack the case, authorities said. Even as Chen was being rescued from the Temple City house, Chinese agents arrested three suspects in China.

Authorities are still searching for two other men who they believe masterminded the scheme.

When the two Wangs are released from prison, they probably will be deported to China, said Mrozek.