Australia’s detainee receives suspended death sentence from China

Australian writer Yang Hengjun has been given a suspended death sentence by a Chinese court. This happened five years after he was arrested and accused of spying.

Australian officials say that the sentence might be changed to life in prison after two years.

Dr Yang, who is a scholar and writer, denies the accusations about Chinese state affairs on his blog. The charges have not been made public.

The Australian government is very upset by what happened.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese went to China last year to make things better because the relationship between the two countries had been getting worse.

Penny Wong, who is the Foreign Minister, has asked China’s Ambassador to Australia for an explanation. She also said that the government will strongly communicate its response to Beijing.

“We have always asked for fair treatment and kindness for Dr. Yang, following international rules and China’s laws,” she said in a statement.

All Australians want Dr. Yang to be back with his family. We will keep fighting for what we believe in.

Australian leaders have been worried about how he is being treated. But China’s government has told them not to get involved and to respect their legal system.

Chinese spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that Dr. Yang’s case has been carefully handled according to the law and his rights have been respected.

Supporters of Dr. Yang said he was unfairly arrested for political reasons.

“The Chinese government punished him because he spoke out against the bad things happening to people in China and supported important values like human rights, democracy, and the rule of law,” said his friend, Feng Chongyi, who is a professor in Sydney.

Dr Yang used to work for the Chinese government. People called him the “democracy peddler” because he wrote about democracy. But he didn’t directly criticize the government in his writings.

He was living in New York but went to Guangzhou in January 2019 with his wife and her child, who are Chinese citizens, on a visa run. However, he was stopped at the airport.

The 58-year-old’s situation has mostly been kept private since then, including a hidden trial in 2021.

Elaine Pearson, who is the Asia Director for Human Rights Watch, said that the case has raised a lot of worries about whether the proper legal procedures were followed, and the result is very unfair.

“He didn’t have a lawyer when he needed one, and his trial was not fair. He said he was tortured and forced to confess during questioning,” she told the media.

Dr Yang can still ask for a chance to change the decision, Ms. But Yang’s sons in Australia have said before that he is getting sicker and not getting medical care.

Before Albanese went to Beijing last November, Dr. Yang’s sons asked the prime minister for help in getting their father released. They said their father’s health was getting worse.

His arrest, along with Cheng Lei’s in 2020, made the relationship between Beijing and Canberra worse. But things have been getting better since a new government took over in Australia in 2022.

However, Richard McGregor, a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute, told the Sydney Morning Herald that Dr. Yang’s new sentence is likely to severely affect the relationship between the two countries.

“He said the big screen shows how difficult it is for foreigners to get help from the Chinese legal system, and how it punishes people who try to question it. ”

“This sentence is the most extreme and unexpected. ” He will not be able to avoid dying in prison.