Hostages’ fate casts long shadow

Imprisoned Australian academic Yang Hengjun’s diagnosis with a large cyst on one of his kidneys raises the stakes significantly for Anthony Albanese’s intended visit to China later this year. The fates of Dr Yang and imprisoned Australian journalist Cheng Lei are central to hopes of improving the bilateral relationship.

Dr Yang has been in jail in Beijing since 2019, detained in a 1.2m-wide cell with two others. He was tried in secret on espionage charges, which he strongly denies, in May 2021 but has not yet been handed a verdict. Cheng was arrested on unspecified “national security” charges in 2020. In March last year a Chinese court heard the case against her in a secret session from which Australian ambassador Graham Fletcher was excluded. In April this year it emerged that a sentencing date for Cheng had been delayed for another three months, the fifth such unexplained postponement. In a public statement released on her behalf a fortnight ago, Cheng spoke of her heartache over being isolated from her children in Australia. Both Dr Yang and Cheng deserve far better.

Dr Yang’s diagnosis with what is described as “a kidney cyst the same size as the kidney itself” has raised fears he could die a political prisoner. The warning by Dr Yang’s doctoral supervisor, University of Technology Sydney professor Feng Chongyi, that his friend’s case needed to be “resolved urgently” should be heeded by Chinese authorities. Otherwise, Professor Feng said, “he could face a similar fate to China’s eminent Nobel Peace laureate, Liu Xiaobo, who died from liver cancer in 2017 while in custody”. Liu, who was a friend of Dr Yang, was granted medical parole following his liver cancer diagnosis and died in a Chinese hospital. Professor Feng suggested Australia should seek similar permission that would allow Dr Yang “access to professional doctors outside the Chinese security apparatus”.

China’s treatment of Dr Yang and Cheng is casting a dark shadow over prospects for the Prime Minister’s Beijing visit. Professor Feng contended that such a visit when Dr Yang and Cheng were being “held hostage” would be “morally indefensible … this would violate basic Australian principles to safeguard basic human rights”. Many would agree, despite the importance of a visit aimed at restoring the bilateral relationship to what it was before China became apoplectic about Scott Morrison’s reasonable call for a full investigation into the origins of Covid-19.

If he meets Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in New Delhi on September 9, Mr Albanese must leave the Chinese leader in no doubt that the brutal treatment of the Australians is an impediment to improving the relationship.