China gives Australian writer Yang Hengjun suspended death sentence

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Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun has been handed a suspended death sentence in China five years after being detained on espionage charges.

Penny Wong, Australia’s foreign minister, said the government was “appalled” by the decision and had summoned the Chinese ambassador in Canberra to express its concerns.

Yang, a former Chinese official, novelist and blogger who became a prominent writer and Australian citizen, was detained by Chinese authorities in January 2019 in the southern city of Guangzhou.

The sentence, which could be commuted to see Yang spend the rest of his life behind bars, could derail a nascent rapprochement between the two countries after a years-long diplomatic deep-freeze.

It also comes months after the release of Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who was detained for more than after three years in China on charges of supplying state secrets overseas.

Canberra and Beijing have sought to mend ties in recent months after two years of economic and security tensions that included incidents of military intimidation and China imposing trade tariffs and sanctions on a range of Australian goods.

Lei’s release preceded a state visit to China last year by Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, whose predecessor Scott Morrison had angered Beijing by calling for an independent inquiry into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

China has also eased trade restrictions on crucial Australian exports including coal and barley.

Albanese raised the issue of Yang’s incarceration during his meeting with Chinese officials, after Yang’s sons had written to the Australian prime minister asking him to do all he could to achieve a “second miracle” following Lei’s release.

Yang’s case, however, is more complicated because the democracy advocate previously worked for the Chinese security service, according to Australian…