2024-02-05 06:02:58
February 5, 2024 5:51 am
Last updated: February 5, 2024 at 7:05 am
image copyrightYANG HENGJUN/TWITTER
Image caption,
Yang Hengjun was arrested by the Chinese government in 2019 and has been detained for five years.
A Chinese court reportedly sentenced Australian-Chinese writer Yang Hengjun to a suspended death sentence following he had been detained in China for five years on espionage charges.
Australian officials said the suspended death sentence might be converted to life imprisonment following two years.
Yang Hengjun, a scholar and novelist who writes regarding China, has always denied the accusations.
The Australian government expressed “shock” at the verdict. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Monday (February 5), “(We) will express our reaction in the strongest possible terms.”
“We have continued to call for basic fairness, procedural fairness and humanitarian treatment for Dr. Yang in accordance with international rules and China’s legal obligations,” she said in a statement.
“All Australians want to see Dr Young reunited with his family. We will continue our campaign.”
Yang Hengjun, who reportedly once worked for China’s national security department, is known as a “democracy hawker,” but his works tend to avoid direct criticism of the Chinese government.
The 58-year-old was arrested at Guangzhou Airport in 2019. Chinese authorities later said Yang Hengjun was “suspected of engaging in criminal activities that endanger China’s national security.” In March 2020, the Chinese government formally charged Yang Hengjun following detaining him for more than a year.
In October 2020, Yang Hengjun was formally charged with “espionage”. On May 27, 2021, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court secretly held a hearing on Yang Hengjun’s alleged espionage case. His sentencing was delayed many times therefollowing.
Australian officials have repeatedly expressed concern regarding the case, and the Australian ambassador to China has criticized China for arbitrary detention of Yang Hengjun. But China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned Australia to respect the country’s “judicial sovereignty” and not to interfere in the case.
Supporters of Yang Hengjun called the move “political persecution.”
Feng Chongyi, a scholar now living in Sydney and a friend of Yang Hengjun, told the BBC, “He was punished by the authorities for criticizing China’s violation of human rights and calling for adherence to universal values, democracy and the rule of law.”
Yang Hengjun’s family said that he suffered more than 300 interrogations and six months of intense torture during his detention.
Yang Hengjun once lived in New York. In January 2019, he went to Guangzhou with his wife and children, who are Chinese citizens, and was arrested at Guangzhou Airport.
Elaine Pearson, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said the Yang Hengjun case has raised a lot of concerns regarding due process and the current results are “outrageous.”
“His access to lawyers was restricted and delayed, and the case was heard behind closed doors. Yang himself claimed that he was abused and forced to confess during the trial,” she told the BBC.
Huang Yingxian said that Yang Hengjun still has ways to appeal, but his son in Australia once said that his father’s health condition was worrying and he did not receive timely treatment.
The Yang Hengjun case and the Cheng Lei case in 2020 are the epitome of the deterioration of China-Australia relations. However, following the new Australian government took office in 2022, the relations between the two countries have improved.
Richard McGregor, a researcher at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, an Australian think tank, believes that Yang Hengjun’s verdict may have a serious impact on bilateral relations. The case illustrates the opacity of China’s judicial system, its indifference to the claims of foreign governments involving its own citizens, and its retaliation once morest those who challenge it.
“This sentence is the most extreme result we can expect. He (Yang Hengjun) will most likely die in prison.”
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