Yang’s case arbitrary detention

Information provided by 56-year-old Chinese-born Australian writer and commentator Yang Hengjun paints a shocking picture of his ordeal leading up to his trial last Thursday in Beijing’s No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court. China correspondent Will Glasgow reports Dr Yang, who has been imprisoned for 2½ years on shadowy charges of alleged espionage, has spoken in a message relayed to friends and supporters. He has allegedly been subjected to torture during more than 300 interrogations by Chinese secret police.

Maintaining his innocence, Dr Yang told Australian consular officials on Friday that he was tired and in urgent need of a dentist. In thanking the Australian government for its assistance, he said he still did not know, astonishingly, which country China was alleging he spied for. Before the trial, Foreign Minister Marise Payne warned, correctly, of a “closed and opaque” process. Our ambassador to China, Graham Fletcher, was barred from entering the courtroom, despite China’s clear obligations under the Australia-China bilateral consular agreement. Senator Payne’s concerns about “lack of procedural fairness” in the case are well founded.

Since his incarceration Dr Yang has been permitted little access to lawyers, consular assistance or family. There was no sign of any improvement during the trial, with the judge barring him from calling witnesses in his defence. He was ordered to submit evidence in writing, although he also was permitted to make representations to the judge in a pre-trial hearing. He had to spend the entire day in full PPE protective gear, including goggles, despite no new Covid-19 community transmission being reported in Beijing since January. According to reports, full PPE covering is used in the Chinese legal system to make contact with prisoners such as Dr Yang as difficult as possible.

His lawyers were barred from sharing details of what was said to be a “national security case”. Nor was there any word about a verdict. The deadline for a judgment is said to be July 9, but it can be extended indefinitely. The sentence for espionage in China ranges from three years to death.

Senator Payne labelled Dr Yang’s case “arbitrary detention”. It would be hard for even the most loudmouthed of Beijing’s official spokesmen to deny that, although they will try. Beijing’s embassy was wildly inaccurate when it demanded Australia “refrain from interfering’’ in China’s “lawful handling of the case”.