A court in China yesterday handed Australian writer Yang Hengjun (楊恒均) a suspended death sentence on espionage charges, threatening a recent rebound in bilateral ties that followed several years of strained relations between Beijing and Canberra.
The sentence, handed down five years after Yang was detained in China and three years after his closed-door trial on espionage charges, shocked his family and supporters.
It also threatens a recent warming of relations between Australia and China, analysts say, which until late last year had been marred by tensions over trade, COVID-19 and China’s security posture.
Photo: Feng Chongyi via AP
Yang, a pro-democracy blogger, is an Australian citizen born in China who was working in New York before his arrest at Guangzhou airport in 2019.
An employee of the Chinese Ministry of State Security from 1989 to 1999, he had been accused of spying for a country China has not publicly identified, and the details of the case against him have not been made public.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) told reporters in Beijing that Yang had been found guilty of espionage and “sentenced to death with two years probation, and it was ordered that all his personal properties be confiscated.”
Wang added that “the Australian side” was allowed to sit in on the sentencing and that all procedures were followed.
Sydney-based academic Feng Chongyi (馮崇義), a longtime friend of Wang’s who has followed the trial closely, called it a “serious case of injustice,” adding that Yang had denied the charges.
“He is punished by the Chinese government for his criticism of human rights abuses in China and his advocacy for universal values such as human rights, democracy and rule of law,” Feng said.
He urged the Australian government to seek medical parole for Yang, saying that five years of detention had taken a heavy toll on his health.
Australia is “appalled” at the court’s decision and has called in China’s ambassador, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) said.
Wong said the Australian government understood the sentence can be commuted to life imprisonment after two years if the individual does not commit any serious crimes in that period.
“This is harrowing news for Dr Yang, his family and all who have supported him,” she said.
Yang’s family was “shocked and devastated by this news, which comes at the extreme end of worst expectations,” a family spokesman said in Sydney.
Yang, who has denied working as a spy for Australia or the US, wrote about Chinese and US politics as a high-profile blogger.
He was living in New York in 2019 as a visiting academic at Columbia University, when he was arrested while visiting China in January 2019, accompanied by his wife.
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