China has issued a suspended death sentence to an Australian writer, five years after he was arrested on suspicion of espionage.
Pro-democracy academic Dr. Yang Hengjun was arrested at Guangzhou airport in 2019 on charges of spying for a country that China has not publicly identified.
According to the Australian government, Dr. Yang's sentence, which comes after a three-year closed trial, could be commuted to life imprisonment after two years if he does not commit any serious crimes in that period.
He denied working as a spy for Saleh Australia Or the United States, with letters sent to family and supporters from prison denying any wrongdoing.
Fellow Australian researcher Feng Zhongji denounced the ruling as a “serious case of injustice.”
“The Chinese government punished him for his criticism of human rights violations in China and his defense of universal values such as human rights, democracy and the rule of law,” Feng said.
Dr. Yang has written about Chinese and US politics as a well-known blogger.
He was living in New York in 2019 and working as an online shopping agent for Chinese consumers looking for American products — and was arrested while visiting China later that year.
The academic was arrested in China once in 2011 on suspicion of his links to online democracy activists, but was released a few days later after the Australian government intervened.
At the time, Dr Yang reportedly briefed Feng on his work in China's Ministry of State Security for a decade from 1989 before he moved to Australia to complete his studies.
The Chinese-born scientist also devoted his time to writing spy novels, published in Taiwan, about a double agent also named Yang.
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited China at the end of last year. Photo: AP
The decision has shocked his family and supporters, with Canberra saying it was “appalled” by the ruling.
A family spokesman in Sydney said they were “shocked and devastated by this news which comes at the worst of expectations”.
Dr Yang's two sons, who live in Australia, wrote to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in October ahead of his trip to Beijing, urging him to demand Yang's release on medical grounds.
His supporters argued that Dr. Yang should be released on medical parole after being informed of the possibility of kidney surgery.
Bilateral relations between Australia and China, described as a “comprehensive strategic partnership” in 2014 based on strong economic, trade and cultural ties, have come under pressure in the wake of the case.
Richard MacGregor, of the independent Australian think tank Lowy Institute, said the ruling would “cast a pall” over the relationship and would serve as a “powerful reminder of the Chinese regime's ambiguity and insensitivity to reasonable foreign complaints.”
Eileen Pearson of Human Rights Watch said the ruling was “disgraceful” and called on the Australian government to work “with other governments that arbitrarily detain their citizens” including Canada, Japan and the United States.
China is taking strict measures against potential threats to its national security, and has uncovered several cases of espionage it has seized in recent years.
The government was too And warn its citizens In the country and abroad, there are risks of falling into it
Espionage activities.
People have been encouraged to join counterintelligence work which involves establishing channels to report suspicious activities.
China has also launched a massive crackdown on foreign consulting firms and due diligence firms over threats to disclose state secrets that have alarmed foreign companies operating in the country.
