US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has expressed "great regret" over the alleged beating of Chinese businesswoman Zhao Yan at a US Customs and Border Protection station last week, officials of the Chinese embassy said on Thursday.

In a telephone call to Lan Lijun, charge d'affaires of the Chinese embassy, Ridge described the event as "a horrible incident" which was "totally unacceptable" and expressed "great regret" to the Chinese government and people.

Ridge said that Robert Rhodes, the only officer of the US Customs and Border Protection who has been arrested in the incident, had been charged with felony assault, Chinese embassy officials said.

US news sources quote local law enforcement officials as saying that Rhodes has been charged with a federal civil rights violation involving bodily harm. The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a US$250,000 fine. Rhodes was suspended from his job prior to his arrest.

Ridge said he has directed the US Customs and Border Protection officers to take action to prevent such incidents from happening again, Chinese embassy officials said.

Lan Lijun urged the US to thoroughly investigate the case, punish persons responsible and keep China informed of progress.

Zhao Yan, a businesswoman from China's northern coastal city of Tianjin, was on her first US business trip on July 21 when Rhodes mistakenly thought she was accompanying a man caught smuggling drugs. Rhodes reportedly asserts that he was attempting to subdue her as she ran and that he acted alone; Zhao says that at least three officers beat and kicked her and that she made no attempt to escape or resist.

Zhao Yan said on Wednesday that six days after she was brutally attacked, she was still suffering from a bad headache, swollen eyes and mental trauma. She also has a broken tooth and severe back pain that requires that she use a wheelchair.

She says the physical pain and mental trauma are preventing her from sleeping more than two or three hours a day.

"I have been to many countries in the past for business purposes, and the United States is the most barbarous," Zhao was quoted as saying.

Zhao reportedly intends to sue the US government for US$5 million.

Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, during a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday, urged the US government to carry out a thorough investigation into the attack and bring those responsible for the incident to justice.

"We regret the apparent mistreatment of a Chinese national by a US customs officer in Niagara Falls," the US State Department said in a statement Thursday. "We have communicated to the Chinese government that the US customs officer was arrested by Customs and Border Patrol Police and his case referred for criminal prosecution."

(China Daily, China.org.cn July 30, 2004)