Chinese ‘hostage’ Yang Hengjun fears for life after kidney diagnosis

Detained Australian writer Yang Hengjun fears he will die a political prisoner in a Chinese jail after receiving news he has a large cyst on one of his kidneys.

Dr Yang Hengjun, before his detention by Chinese authorities.

Detained Australian writer Yang Hengjun fears he will die a political prisoner in a Chinese jail after receiving news he has a large cyst on one of his kidneys, but no word on possible treatment options.

The revelation raises the stakes for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s planned trip to Beijing later this year, which he has indicated will go ahead, despite the detention of Dr Yang and Australian journalist Cheng Lei, and ongoing ­Chinese trade bans against Australian exports.

Chinese Ministry of State Security personnel told Dr Yang last Thursday he had a 10cm cyst on a kidney. The diagnosis followed months of discomfort for Dr Yang, who is on medication for gout and high blood pressure.

An MSS doctor told him no treatment would be required if the cyst didn’t split or bleed, but did not advise what course of action would be taken if his condition deteriorated.

Dr Yang said through a friend: “If something happens with my health and I die in here, people outside won’t know the truth. That is frustrating. If something happens to me, who can speak for me?”

Dr Yang’s doctoral supervisor, UTS Professor Feng Chongyi, said his friend’s case needed to be resolved urgently or he could face a similar fate to Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died from liver cancer in 2017 while in MSS custody.

“We all know these facilities should not be trusted,” Professor Feng said. “The Australian government should push for medical parole to give Yang access to ­professional doctors outside the Chinese security apparatus.”

He said the Prime Minister’s plan to visit Beijing while Dr Yang and Ms Lei were still “held hostage” was “morally indefensible”. “This violates basic Australian principles to safeguard basic human rights,” he said of the planned trip.

Friends who have been briefed on Dr Yang’s condition in recent days said the writer, who was ­detained by Chinese authorities 4½ years ago, was concerned he would be denied medical treatment and would die in jail.

“Unfortunately, this is not an irrational fear. This was the fate of Yang’s friend, Nobel prize winner Liu Xiaobo,” one said.

“There is little reason to trust that the Chinese state security system has any interest in giving Yang the treatment he needs.

“We have been raising concerns about his kidney health and requesting medical parole for several years and have had no reliable assurances that he is getting any of it. And now, in recent days, we are told that he has a kidney cyst that is roughly the same size as the kidney itself. We have not been told what kind of cyst this is or what treatment options are available.”

Plans are well under way for Mr Albanese’s China trip, despite concerns among business leaders and in the human rights community over the visit’s timing.

Mr Albanese told parliament earlier this month that he might meet President Xi Jinping ahead of the planned visit, during the G20 Leaders’ Summit in India next month. The pair met on the sidelines of the forum last year, ending a long bilateral freeze.

Graingrowers rejoiced in the first week of August when China said it would lift trade sanctions on $900m a year in Australian barley exports to the country.

The government hopes the agreement, which followed a World Trade Organisation challenge, will provide a template for resolving Chinese bans on $1.1bn in Australian wine imports.

The Chinese government has steadfastly refused to comment on its treatment of Dr Yang and Ms Lei, who it has accused of espionage offences.

Ms Lei released her first public statement a fortnight ago since being detained in September 2020. “I miss the sun. In my cell, the sunlight shines through the window, but I can stand in it for only 10 hours a year,” she wrote from an undisclosed facility in Beijing.

She spoke of her heartache at her isolation from her children, aged 12 and 14. “Most of all, I miss my children,” she said.