China court gives Australian writer Yang Hengjun suspended death
sentence
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[February 05, 2024]
By Kirsty Needham and Laurie Chen
SYDNEY/BEIJING (Reuters) -A Beijing court on Monday handed Australian
writer Yang Hengjun 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 regional security posture.
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 China's Ministry of State Security from 1989-1999,
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.
Wang Wenbin, a Chinese ministry spokesperson, told reporters in Beijing
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.
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Sydney-based scholar Feng Chongyi, who 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 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 Foreign Minister Penny Wong 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", said a family spokesman in
Sydney.
His two sons, who live in Australia, wrote to Prime Minister Anthony
Albanese in October on the eve of his visit to Beijing, urging him to
seek Yang's release on medical grounds.
His supporters have argued Yang should be released on medical parole
after he was told last year he had a 10 cm (4 inch) cyst on his kidney
that may require surgery.
Australia had said it was troubled by repeated delays in Yang's case,
and had advocated for his well-being, including access to medical
treatment, "at the highest levels".
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![](../images/020524PIX/news_q2.jpg)
People walk past one of the entrances of Beijing No. 2 Intermediate
People's Court where Australian writer Yang Hengjun is expected to
face trial on espionage charges, in Beijing, China May 27, 2021.
REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Feb/05/images/ads/current/crossroadsantique_lda_010924.png)
A Beijing court heard Yang's trial in secret in May 2021 and the
case against him has never been publicly disclosed. He has denied
working as a spy for Australia or the United States and has denied
any wrongdoing in letters to family from jail.
HIGH-PROFILE BLOGGER
Yang was detained as Australia-China ties deteriorated in 2019. But
hopes of his release had been lifted by a recent warming of
relations and the release of Australian broadcaster Cheng Lei
shortly before Albanese visited China last year.
Albanese was the first Australian leader to visit China since 2016,
as ties soured over Chinese telecoms company Huawei, allegations of
espionage, Australia's push to investigate the origins of COVID-19,
and tensions in South China Sea.
James Laurenceson, director of the Australia-China Relations
Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, said that Beijing
had said it wanted to move beyond the stabilization of ties with
Australia, but that the sentence would make a thaw harder.
"This decision makes it extremely difficult for the Albanese
government to do so in terms of managing the domestic politics. The
strong language already used by foreign minister makes plain their
disappointment," he said.
Yang wrote about Chinese and U.S. politics as a high-profile
blogger. He was living in New York in 2019 as a visiting scholar at
Columbia University who supplemented his income by working as a "daigou"
or online shopping agent for Chinese consumers seeking American
products.
He was arrested while visiting China in January 2019, accompanied by
his wife.
Yang had been detained in China for a short period once before, in
2011, on suspicion of links to online democracy activists. He was
released after a few days following interventions by the Australian
government.
At the time, he wrote to Feng to say he had worked for China’s
Ministry of State Security for a decade starting in 1989, including
in Hong Kong and Washington, before quitting and moving to
Australia, Feng had told Reuters.
Yang migrated to Australia in 1999 and became an Australian citizen
in 2002, undertaking PhD studies at Sydney's University of
Technology in 2006, where Feng was his supervisor.
Yang spent the next four years writing spy novels, published in
Taiwan, about a double agent, also surnamed Yang.
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Elaine Pearson, who heads Human Rights Watch in Asia, said the
sentence was "outrageous", and called on the Australian government
to work "with other governments that also have their citizens
arbitrarily detained" including Canada, Japan and the United States.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney, Laurie Chen and Antoni
Slodkowski in Beijing; Editing by Kim Coghill and Gerry Doyle)
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