Senator: American arrested in China freed

BILLINGS, Mont.—Chinese authorities have dropped charges against an American college student who was arrested and detained in the Asian nation a week ago after reportedly injuring a taxi driver who was roughing up his mother in a fare dispute, a U.S. lawmaker said Sunday.

Guthrie McLean, a University of Montana senior, was released from a detention center in the central China city of Zhengzhou early Monday local time, according to Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana.

“Prayer’s answered. Guthrie’s home,” the 25-year-old student’s mother, Jennifer McLean, wrote in an email to Daines’ office.

Jennifer McLean confirmed her son’s release in an email to The Associated Press. She provided no further information.

Jennifer McLean has been teaching in Zhengzhou, where her son, a U.S. citizen, was visiting her this summer.

His release followed days of negotiations between U.S. officials and Chinese authorities. Details on the deal that led to Guthrie McLean’s release were not immediately disclosed.

Daines and U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, had argued McLean’s detention was unjustified because he was defending his mother, who is deaf, when he reportedly pushed the taxi driver to the ground during a June 10 altercation in Zhengzhou.

The college student majoring in East Asian studies was detained five weeks later, on July 16, on charges of intentional injury.

Jennifer McLean had alleged that police demanded the equivalent of $7,400 in compensation from the family and threatened to imprison her son for up to three years if they refused to pay.