UpdateUS student arrested in China after taxi driver dispute
Family of Guthrie McLean say he came to the aid of his mother who was assaulted by the driver in Zhengzhou and they are now concerned for his welfare
The family of an American university student detained in China for five days without charge or contact beyond the police station have enlisted the help of US politicians to try to secure his release.
Guthrie McLean, a student at the University of Montana, was detained on Sunday evening in Zhengzhou in Henan province and formally arrested the following day.
His detainment follows an incident on June 10 when a taxi fare dispute between his mother and a driver turned violent, Montana’s Missoulian newspaper reported.
Tom Mitchell, a long-time family friend and the Beijing bureau chief of the Financial Times, told the Montana paper that the altercation occurred when Jennifer McLean, who is deaf and teaches in China, took a cab to her home in Zhengzhou.
The driver “started to rough up Jennifer” after a dispute over the taxi fare and her son came to pull him off and push him to the ground, Mitchell was quoted as saying.
About a week later the police took Guthrie McLean to a station and requested about 100,000 yuan (US$14,800) in compensation for the driver’s injuries. They later lowered this to 60,000 yuan, then 50,000 yuan.