Yang -- who also goes by the pen name Yang Hengjun -- was born in China in 1965 and became an Australian citizen in the early 2000s.
He grew a readership in exile as the author of novels that drew on his experiences in his homeland.
He said he once worked for the Chinese foreign ministry, although Beijing has denied that.
Yang had a following of more than 125,000 on Twitter at the time of his arrest, frequently sharing calls for more openness and freedom in China.
In a 2021 letter from prison, Yang said it was still unclear who he is accused of spying for.
"This isn't a crime of ideology. The charges are about espionage. But who did I work for? If this is a crime, and if I'm a criminal, then who did I work for? I didn't work for Australia or the US," he wrote.
"I'm only writing for people. Writing for rule of law, democracy, and freedom."
- Detained -
Yang's family say his health has deteriorated in prison and that they are fearful he will be "left to die".
He was formally detained on espionage charges in 2019 while on a rare return to China from the United States, where he was living at the time.
Canberra said the claim he had acted as a spy for Australia was "absolutely untrue".
It was not the first time that Yang vanished in China: he went missing during a 2011 trip but resurfaced days later, describing his disappearance as a "misunderstanding".
No such release was forthcoming this time around, however, and a closed-doors trial was held in Beijing in 2021, although no verdict has yet been made public.
Officials have not provided details of Yang's alleged spying, which Beijing defines broadly and for which it metes out harsh punishment, from life in prison to execution in extreme cases.
The writer has insisted he is "100 percent innocent".
Yang previously told supporters he was tortured while at a secret detention site and that he feared forced confessions may be used against him.
Writing from prison in 2019, Yang pleaded to Canberra to put aside its economic reliance on China to help him go home.
A Chinese investigator "told me that Australia was small and wouldn't care about me", Yang said in the letter, obtained by national broadcaster ABC.
"He said Australia was dependent on China for its trade and economy, and Canberra wouldn't help me, let alone rescue me. He said Australia wouldn't help because I am not white.
"This is nonsense. He was wrong," he said.
- 'Cruel' treatment -
Beijing's foreign ministry has insisted that Yang's rights are being respected and accused Canberra of interference.
Yang's sons counter that he is being held in dire conditions.
They say he is being subject to "particularly cruel" treatment -- deprived of his beloved books in a cramped cell in which he must "eat, drink, defecate and urinate".
They urged Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last November to raise their father's plight during his first official visit to Beijing. Albanese promised he would.
The release of fellow Chinese-Australian journalist Cheng Lei the previous month after a three-year detention had left them hoping for a "second miracle", they said.
"Like Cheng Lei, our father cherishes the freedoms and protections that come with his Australian identity," Yang's sons said in a letter.
But no such miracle has occurred, with Australia's top diplomat Monday describing news of Yang's sentence as "harrowing".
"We will not relent in our advocacy," she promised.
China says Australian writer given suspended death sentence
Beijing (AFP) Feb 5, 2024 -
Chinese-Australian dissident writer Yang Jun was Monday handed a suspended death sentence for espionage in China, Beijing said, five years after he was detained on a rare visit to his homeland.
The Chinese-born Australian citizen has been in jail since 2019 on spying allegations and is said to be in ill health.
The writer, whose pen name is Yang Hengjun, has denied the allegations, telling supporters he was tortured at a secret detention site and that he feared forced confessions may be used against him.
His sentencing is one of China's heaviest in a public trial for espionage in years.
Yang, who gained a huge following in exile for his spy novels and calls for greater freedom in his homeland, was sentenced by a Beijing court Monday "in an espionage case", the foreign ministry said.
"It found that Yang Jun was guilty of espionage, sentenced him to death with a two-year suspended execution, and confiscated all his personal property," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.
Canberra has condemned the death sentence, which it said could be commuted to life in jail after a period of two years, during which time Yang would remain imprisoned.
"The Australian government is appalled at this outcome," Foreign Minister Penny Wong told a news conference.
"We will be communicating our response in the strongest terms," the Australian minister said.
Wong said the Chinese ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, would be summoned to hear the government's objection.
"I want to acknowledge the acute distress that Dr. Yang and his family will be feeling today, coming after years of uncertainty," she said.
Yang's verdict and sentence had been repeatedly delayed since his closed-door trial on national security charges in May 2021, she said.
Canberra had consistently called for "basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment", she said.
"Australia will not relent in advocacy for justice for Dr. Yang's interests and wellbeing including appropriate medical treatment," the minister said.
"All Australians want to see Dr. Yang reunited with his family," Wong said.
- 'Who can speak for me?' -
The suspended death sentence will be seen as a setback in Australia-China relations, which had appeared to be warming.
Australian journalist Cheng Lei was released in October after more than three years' detention on espionage charges widely seen as politically motivated.
Yang's friends said last year that he feared he would die in jail without proper medical treatment because of a cyst growing on his kidney.
"If something happens with my health and I die in here, people outside won't know the truth," he said in a note shared with friends and supporters.
"If something happens to me, who can speak for me?"
Human Rights Watch also condemned the "catastrophic" sentencing.
"After years of arbitrary detention, allegations of torture, a closed and unfair trial without access to his own choice of lawyers -- a sentence as severe as this is alarming," Human Rights Watch's Australia director Daniela Gavshon said.
Tensions between Canberra and Beijing mounted in 2018 when Australia excluded the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from its 5G network.
Then in 2020, Australia called for an international investigation into the origins of Covid-19 -- an action China saw as politically motivated.
In response, Beijing slapped high tariffs on key Australian exports, including barley, beef and wine, while halting its coal imports.
Most of those tariffs have been lifted under the current centre-left government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who made a breakthrough trip to Beijing in November 2023, hailing progress as "unquestionably very positive".
Tensions remain, however, when it comes to security, as Australia draws closer to the United States in an effort to blunt China's expanding influence in the South Pacific region.
Related Links
China News from SinoDaily.com
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
