Yang Hengjun, a Chinese-Australian writer arrested and detained by China for nearly two years on charges of espionage, has sent a message from prison telling people to “pursue freedom, rule of law and democracy. In the letter, he said he had been interrogated for more than 300 times, but the authorities had failed to find any evidence.
Yang Hengjun was detained in January 2019 after arriving in Guangzhou from New York with his wife, Yuan Ruijuan, and 14-year-old stepdaughter. A verdict in Yang Hengjun’s case was scheduled for January next year, but the trial has been delayed until April.
Yang, 55, was a visiting scholar at Columbia University before being detained by Chinese authorities, and immigrated to Australia in 2000. In a 2011 letter to his Ph.D. adviser Feng Chongyi at the University of Technology Sydney, Yang revealed that he had previously worked for China’s state security agency for 10 years in Hong Kong and Washington, D.C., and left the agency in 1999 when he moved to Australia. Yang Hengjun, who later became a novelist and blogger, called himself a “democracy peddler” and at one time published frequent articles advocating democracy and freedom and euphemistically criticizing Beijing’s authoritarian dictatorship.
The Associated Press on Wednesday (Dec. 23) saw this letter from Yang Hengjun to his wife, children, friends, colleagues and readers, which was recently released from prison. The letter said that after two years, especially torture, more than 300 interrogations, and a lot of verbal violence, he is now in a state of deeper retrospection and introspective contemplation. I miss you all more and more, he said. He also hopes that his readers “will keep their hearts, ideals and dreams alive and pursue democracy, rule of law and freedom.”
Yang Hengjun’s detention in Chinese custody has raised serious concerns about his conditions, including isolation from the outside world, restrictions on communication with family and friends, and day-to-day interrogations in shackles, with the Australian government accusing the Chinese government of treating Yang Hengjun in an “unacceptable” manner.
However, in the letter, Yang said he still has some faith in the Chinese courts and believes they will be fair to him, “whether they convict me or not, it will clearly show whether the courts are ruled by the rule of law or by absolute power.” He said he has strong faith in humanity, justice, the administration of justice and God.
In response to Yang Hengjun’s letter that he was tortured, verbally abused and repeatedly interrogated in prison, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press conference on Wednesday that China has repeatedly stated its position on the case of Yang Hengjun (known as Yang Jun in China), which is currently being heard in the first instance. He stressed again that “China is a country governed by the rule of law, and the Chinese judiciary is independent in handling the case according to the law, and all of Yang Jun’s legal rights are fully protected, and there is no such thing as ‘torture’ or ‘mistreatment’. “
Since Yang Hengjun was detained by China last year, the Australian government has been demanding that the Chinese authorities immediately release him and allow him to leave China and return to Australia with his wife.
The Yang Hengjun case comes at a time when Australia-China relations were already strained, especially after Australia called for an international, independent investigation into the source of the new crown outbreak in April of this year, and the bottom fell out. China has taken a number of punitive trade initiatives against Australia. In addition, Cheng Lei, an Australian anchor for China Global Television Network (CGTN), a subsidiary of China’s official media CCTV, is still under investigation by Chinese officials after she was accused of criminal activities against China’s national security in August this year.
Recent Comments