Yang Hengjun waives right to appeal Beijing’s suspended death sentence

Australian Yang Hengjun has waived his right to appeal his suspended death sentence in the hope Beijing will allow him to get life-saving medical treatment and lift an ‘exit ban’ on his wife.

Yang Hengjun with his wife Yuan Xiaoliang in 2017.

Australian Yang Hengjun has waived his legal right to appeal his suspended death sentence in the hope that Beijing will let the democracy advocate get medical parole that could save his life.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she respected the “difficult decision” Dr Yang had made and the Australian government would continue to advocate for him “at every opportunity, and at the highest levels”.

“We will continue to press for Dr Yang’s interests and wellbeing, and provide consular assistance to him,” she said.

“I acknowledge the strength that Dr Yang’s family and friends have demonstrated through this period. All Australians want to see Dr Yang reunited with his loved ones,” she said.

Feng Chongyi, an associate professor in China studies at the University of Technology Sydney, said close friends and family had urged Dr Yang to drop the appeal, believing it was the only way the 58-year-old might get medical care for a serious kidney condition.

At a consular visit after his sentencing on February 6 over espionage charges that Dr Yang has always rejected, the naturalised Australian looked to be in bad health after more than five years in detention.

“He looked very thin and pale. Physically, he is very frail,” Professor Feng told The Australian.

Over more than 1850 days in Beijing’s detention system, Dr Yang, a former junior employee at China’s Ministry of State Security, has endured enforced sleep deprivation, erratic medication and being strapped to a “tiger chair”, which was used to restrain him during sometimes fierce interrogation sessions.

Multiple requests for medical parole were denied, even after Dr Yang collapsed in his 1.2m-wide cell.

His friends and supporters hope those requests will be accepted if he is moved from the current detention facility, which is overseen by Beijing’s security agencies, to a prison run by China’s Ministry of Justice.

They also hope that waiving his right to appeal might allow his wife, Yuan Xiaoliang, to leave China, where she has been under surveillance by security agents since January 2019 after Dr Yang was nabbed at Guangzhou’s international airport.

Ms Yuan has wanted to leave for Australia but is unable to do so because of an exit ban placed on her by Chinese authorities.

A source familiar with her situation said she had recently met with Australia’s new ambassador to China, Scott Dewar, to ask for Canberra’s help in trying to get Beijing to overturn the exit ban.

Dr Yang’s death sentence, which may be reduced to life in prison after two years of good behaviour, shocked the Australian government.

Senator Wong has said she was “appalled” by the decision and it would “have an impact on our relationship”.

China’s Foreign Ministry has said the Chinese judicial system had ensured Dr Yang “fully exercised his procedural rights”, and Beijing had “respected and ensured the Australian side’s consular rights”.

Dr Yang’s family and friends thanked the Albanese government and the Australian public for their support as they confirmed his decision to not appeal the suspended death sentence.

Along with the hope that it might end Dr Yang’s “abject medical neglect”, they said there were “no grounds to believe that the system that enabled Yang’s sustained torture and fabricated the charges against him is capable of remedying the injustice of his sentence”.

His plight is expected to hang over a likely visit by Chinese Premier Li Qiang later this year.

Dr Yang’s friends and family said his treatment would continue to strain Canberra’s efforts to stabilise Australia’s relations with Beijing.