An American woman convicted of espionage this week has been deported by China, a human rights group that campaigned for her release said Saturday, removing a source of tensions between Washington and Beijing. Sandy Phan-Gillis was detained in March 2015 at the Macau border after visiting mainland China with a trade delegation from the Texas oil capital Houston.

She was accused of espionage, stealing state secrets and allegedly passing on intelligence to a third party. She was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and deportation on Wednesday. On Friday, "Phan-Gillis was deported. She arrived in Los Angeles the same day. She was met upon arrival by her husband and members of her family," the Dui Hua group said in a statement.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017