Yao Lun v Arnold

• Jurisdiction: China
• Date: 23 November 1954
• Court: Military Court (China)

China, Military Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court, Peking.

(Chia Chien C.J.; Chu Yao-tang and Chang Hsiang-chien JJ.)

Yao Lun, Military Procurator of the Supreme People's Procuratorate

and

Arnold et Al.

STATE TERRITORY

State territory In general Sovereignty over the air Intrusion of territorial air space Espionage Aggression The law of China.

The Facts (as stated by the Court).Defendants: John Knox Arnold, Jr., male, 41, of Washington, D.C., U.S.A., commanding officer (colonel) of the U.S. 581st Air Re-supply and Communications Wing, now under detention; William Hurl Baumer, male, 32, of Pennsylvania, U.S.A., operations officer (major) of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron of the U.S. Far East Air Force, now under detention. [The judgment goes on to list the nine other defendants, all of whom were Americans, and their counsel.]

The aforementioned eleven defendants were indicted by Yao Lun, Military Procurator of the Supreme People's Procuratorate of the People's Republic of China, for having clandestinely crossed the Chinese border by plane to conduct espionage activity with the aim of jeopardizing the security of the People's Republic of China. The present Tribunal, after examining the evidence, has established the following facts:

In attempting to extend armed aggression, jeopardize world peace, and intensify espionage and subversive activity against the Soviet Union and the people's democracies, the United States aggressors have formed, through air force channels, special air wings for the purpose of dropping special agents. These air wings serve the ends of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. The 581st Air Re-supply and Communications Wing is one of these wings, and its task is to drop special agents into the territories of the Soviet Union and the people's democracies, to provide these agents with supplies, to evacuate them and to maintain contact with special agents on the ground. This Wing was formed in July 1951 at the Mountain Home Air Base, Idaho, U.S.A. After a year's special training in recruiting special agents, in air-dropping and re-supplying as well as in maintaining liaison with agents on the ground, the Wing was transferred in July 1952 to the Clark Air Base in the Philippines, to conduct hostile activities against the coastal areas of China and against the maritime provinces of the Soviet Union in the Far East. The Vaadi and Chappelle crews of this Wing were later assigned to the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance...