The Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun given a suspended death sentence in China for espionage on Monday had spied for Taiwan, according to the verdict.
Legal and academic experts said that cases of suspended death sentences for espionage crimes are rare in China, but they believed it was Beijing’s move to “punish one as an example to scare others.”
Yang’s friend, Feng Chongyi, associate professor of Chinese studies at the University of Technology Sydney, told Radio Free Asia that a Beijing court publicly announced the verdict on Monday.
“The verdict was announced at the Beijing Second People’s Court at nine or ten o'clock today [Feb. 5]. Yang Hengjun attended the court in person to hear the verdict,” Feng said.
“Yang’s wife, Australian consulate personnel, the ambassador to China, counselors, and his lawyers were all present.”
According to the verdict, the court found Yang guilty of providing intelligence to Taiwan’s intelligence agency while working in Hong Kong in 1994, sentencing him to death, convertible to life imprisonment after two years, and depriving him of all his personal property.
The 58-year-old Yang, detained since January 2019, is understood to have worked at China’s foreign ministry and the Hainan provincial government. He was transferred to a state-owned enterprise in Hong Kong in the 1990s, and then relocated to the United States.
In 2000, he emigrated to Australia and obtained citizenship. He is also a writer and commentator. He was detained five years ago after arriving in Guangzhou on a flight from the United States.
Yang’s friend, Feng, lambasted the espionage charge as “absurd.”
“In fact, what he really did was write articles online to promote democracy, freedom and the rule of law,” he said.
“If you commit a crime, you would run, let alone return [to China]? Logically, you should appeal because this is an unjust case, but he is currently in very poor health. We hope that after he is transferred to prison, he will have a greater chance of applying for medical parole.”
It is unknown at this point if Yang, who had a cyst in his kidney during his detention, will appeal.
Warning to others
Feng described the sentence as having “no bottom line,” but it was slapped on Yang because of his past public criticism of China on social media, intended to “kill the chicken to scare the monkeys” – alluding to the Chinese idiom of punishing one as an example to scare others.
Zhang Dongshuo, a criminal lawyer in Beijing, pointed out that suspended death sentences for espionage cases are rare.
“In recent years, very few people have been sentenced to death or suspended death for such a crime,” Zhang said.
“This verdict would be the most severe in recent years. The crime must endanger national security, and the circumstances must be very serious, the damage enormous to warrant this sentence. For example, he stole and provided a lot of national secret information, top secret information, and confidential information to the outside world.”
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Monday that the government was appalled by the decision and had summoned the Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian to lodge its objection in the strongest terms.
Wong said they had repeatedly raised Yang’s case with China in different high-level meetings, requesting that Yang be treated humanely and that the case be heard fairly and impartially.
But Feng criticized the Australian government for putting economic and trade interests above safeguarding citizens’ rights.
“The Australian government should have responded very strongly. It cannot just do business as usual,” he said.
In its regular press conference on Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the court fully protected Yang’s litigation rights, respected and implemented Australia’s consular rights such as visitation and notification.
Translated by RFA staff. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gu Ting for RFA Mandarin.
By Gu Ting for RFA Mandarin | Radio Free (2024-02-06T03:07:00+00:00) Aus writer given suspended death sentence spied for Taiwan, Chinese court claims. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2024/02/06/aus-writer-given-suspended-death-sentence-spied-for-taiwan-chinese-court-claims/
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