Anthony Albanese ducks ‘free Yang Hengjung’ criticism

Anthony Albanese has refused to respond to criticism from supporters of detained Australian writer Yang Hengjun that Labor’s approach has been too weak.

Detained Australian writer Yang Hengjun.

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Anthony Albanese has refused to respond to criticism from supporters of an Australian writer detained in China, Yang Hengjun, that Labor’s approach has been too weak, declaring it would be “inappropriate and insensitive” to weigh in.

The Prime Minister said he raised Dr Yang’s incarceration on espionage charges with Chinese President Xi Jinping when the two leaders sat down for a face-to-face meeting on Tuesday.

Speaking in Beijing just hours after the closed-doors meeting, Mr Albanese defended his government’s approach to securing Dr Yang’s release through diplomatic channels.

Amid mounting pressure to push for Dr Yang’s release after his six years in a Chinese prison, Mr Albanese said he would not respond to criticism from the democracy advocate’s supporters that the government’s approach had been too soft.

“I am certainly not going to comment on what the family of someone who is detained here or anywhere else …. that would be entirely inappropriate and insensitive,” Mr Albanese said.

“I understand the pressures that are on people when a loved one has been incarcerated. “What we will do, though, is put forward our views in a diplomatic way in order to try to maximise an ­outcome.”

Mr Albanese said it could not be expected that there would be an immediate outcome after he raised Dr Yang’s incarceration with Mr Xi, and his government would continue to progress his case through “patient, calibrated advocacy”.

“You wouldn’t expect there to be an immediate outcome, and that is not the way these things work,” Mr Albanese said.

“The way it works is by that ­patient, calibrated advocacy … that is what Australians do, what my government does. And I point to the record of my government when it comes to these ­issues.”

Mr Albanese defended his government’s track record on securing the release of Australians detained overseas, vowing to continue to pursue resolution in Dr Yang’s case.

“I point towards the outcomes where Australians here, in China, in Myanmar, in Vietnam, in Indonesia, the US and the UK have all received outcomes that, at the least, could be called satisfactory, because of my government’s advocacy,” he said. “We will continue to do that to achieve outcomes, and that is what our objective is.” Dr Yang was handed a suspended death sentence by a Beijing court last year, after he was sentenced for espionage charges in a secretive closed-door trial.

The sentence could be commuted to life in prison after two years of good behaviour.

His friend and PhD supervisor Feng Chongyi has repeatedly criticised the Australian government’s approach towards securing his release as being “soft”.

Dr Yang’s ordeal has continued despite the Albanese government’s progress in stabilising ­its relationship with Beijing, with the thawing of relations ­having no impact on his detention so far.

Following his arrest at Guangzhou airport by Chinese security agents in January 2019, Dr Yang has endured enforced sleep ­deprivation, erratic medication and being strapped to a “tiger chair”, which was used to restrain him during interrogation sessions.

Dr Yang was accused of handing secret information to Taiwan’s security officials when he was based in Hong Kong. Dr Yang has maintained his innocence.

Before migrating to Australia in 2000, Dr Yang worked for China’s Ministry of State Security.

He has published a series of spy novels and completed a PhD at UTS.