China has rejected criticism by the United States of the life sentence given to a veteran dissident, Wang Bingzhang, on charges of spying and leading a terrorist group.

Richard Boucher, a spokesman for the State Department, said on Monday that America was deeply concerned by apparent flaws in the trial of Wang, a US resident.

He also suggested China was misusing the war on terrorism to repress internal dissent.

Wang Bingzhang

Jailed twice during the Cultural Revolution Permanent US resident Founded two political groups

Profile of Wang Bingzhang

But a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Zhang Qiyue, said the secret proceedings were in line with Chinese law and denied the American allegations.

The sentence is one of the toughest meted out to a democracy activist in recent years.

Wang Bingzhang, 55, was sentenced by a court in Guangdong province, southern China, after a one-day trial behind closed doors in January, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

China said in December it had arrested Wang in the south of the country - he had disappeared in Vietnam six months earlier.

"We've made it clear to China on numerous occasions, and at very senior levels, that the war on terrorism must not be misused to repress legitimate political grievances or dissent," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue responded at a news briefing on Tuesday: "China is a country ruled by law and anyone violating laws and carrying out crimes will be punished by law and the whole trial was also conducted in accordance with laws."

'Kidnapped'

The US human rights group, Free China Movement (FCM), has accused Chinese agents of kidnapping Wang, who is a US resident, and bringing him to China to lay "false charges".

China said he had been engaged in "violent terrorist activities" and had been paid by Taiwan's espionage organisations to collect "state secrets".

FCM director Timothy Cooper described Wang's life sentence as "shameful".

Mysterious disappearance

He went missing, along with two other democracy activists, last summer.

The three entered Vietnam with valid visas, and were planning to hold meetings with fellow activists there.

Chinese dissidents in the US said in July that they had received information that Wang and his fellow activists were abducted by Chinese security forces along the border of China and Vietnam and were being held at a secret location in China.

But China's official news agency Xinhua said in December that police had found the trio bound and gagged in a temple in Fanchenggang city, southern Guangxi province, on 3 July.

It said they had been kidnapped on 27 July in Tinh Quang Ninh in Vietnam, and were being blackmailed.

The two other activists - Yue Wu and Zhang Qi - who were arrested with Wang, are said to have been cleared of all charges and freed.

Our correspondent says Beijing wants to make sure that dissidents who have been effectively neutralised by being sent into exile in the United States do not come back and, in China's eyes, cause trouble.