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China said on Tuesday that the jailing of a U.S. geologist for eight years for stealing state secrets was an internal matter than no other country had the right to interfere.Xue Feng, a 44-year-old U.S. citizen born in China, was detained late in 2007 after negotiating the sale of an oil industry database to his employer at the time, Colorado-based consultancy IHS Energy, now known as IHS Inc.The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said it was "dismayed" at the sentence and concerned about Xue's rights of due process under Chinese law.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the sentencing was a domestic matter."China's judicial departments have handled this case strictly by the law. This is China's internal affair," Qin told a news briefing. "China's internal affairs and judicial sovereignty cannot be interfered with by foreign countries."Xue was convicted of attempting to obtain and traffic in state secrets, a year after his trial ended, said the Duihua Foundation, which promotes prisoners' rights in China and the United States. The database was classified as a state secret only after it was sold, it added.China's notoriously vague state secrets laws received international attention last year when Australian citizen Stern Hu and three colleagues working for mining giant Rio Tinto were detained for stealing state secrets during the course of tense iron ore negotiations.The four were later convicted of the lesser charges of receiving kickbacks and stealing commercial secrets.(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Huang Yan; Editing by Chris Lewis)(For more news on Reuters India, click http://in.reuters.com)
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