China: Writer Yang Hengjun handed suspended death sentence following deeply flawed trial
Credit: Badiucao
6 February: PEN International joins the undersigned PEN Centres in condemning the handing down of a suspended death sentence to Australian writer Yang Hengjun, five years after he was detained and accused of espionage. According to a statement published by Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong, the death sentence can be commuted to life imprisonment after a two-year period of “good behaviour”.
On 5 February 2024, reports emerged that Yang Hengjun had been given a suspended death sentence by a court in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The sentencing occurred over two and a half years after his trial took place behind closed doors, raising significant concerns regarding Yang’s right to a fair trial and the principle of judicial transparency. The court’s judgement was delayed on numerous occasions, compounding the injustice that Yang has been subjected to.
‘This is a shocking, unacceptable outcome of a flawed, opaque judicial process in which a writer has been denied his basic human rights of representation and a fair trial. We stand in solidarity with Yang Hengjun and call on the PRC government to end its assault on freedom of expression.’ said Ma Thida, Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee.
There are grave concerns for Yang’s health and ability to receive adequate healthcare while detained. He has a large cyst on his kidney, which he said was not properly treated, and has been kept in solitary confinement for large parts of his time in prison.
In light of the serious procedural issues surrounding his trial and the unsubstantiated allegations made against him, we call on the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to quash Yang Hengjun’s conviction and for his immediate and unconditional release. We also call on the Australian authorities to petition more forcefully for his release.
Signed:
PEN International
Independent Chinese PEN Centre
PEN Melbourne
PEN Perth
PEN Sydney
PEN Sweden
PEN America
PEN Chile
PEN Myanmar
PEN Bangladesh
PEN Suisse Romand
PEN Croatia
PEN Philippines
PEN Armãn
PEN Netherlands
PEN Trieste
PEN Canada
Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann
PEN Germany
PEN San Miguel
PEN Québec
PEN Malta
PEN Cambodia
English PEN
French PEN Club
Danish PEN
Basque PEN
PEN Liechtenstein
Cuban Writer in Exile PEN
NZSA - PEN New Zealand
PEN Esperanto
Polish PEN Club
Vietnamese Abroad PEN
PEN Norway
PEN Slovenia
PEN Club Romania
Japan PEN Club
PEN Eritrea in Exile
PEN Català
PEN Belarus
PEN Flanders – Belgium
PEN Uruguay
PEN Afrikaans
PEN Malaysia
PEN Finland
PEN Zimbabwe
PEN Nigeria
PEN Uganda
PEN Gambia
PEN Sierra Leone
PEN Tibet
PEN South Africa
Uyghur PEN
Wales PEN Cymru
PEN Morocco
PEN Jordan
For further information please contact Ross Holder, Head of Asia-Pacific region at PEN International, email: [email protected]
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Yang Hengjun is an Australian novelist, scholar and political commentator who is committed to the advancement of human rights and greater freedoms in China.
His trilogy of spy novels, known as the Fatal Weakness series, is centred on the fictional escapades of a double agent working for both the US and PRC government intelligence agencies. The series is reportedly banned in the PRC but has been shared widely online among Chinese diasporas.
Yang’s blog posts have garnered a significant following on Chinese social media, and dozens of his articles were later translated into English and published on The Diplomat. Common themes in his writing are the virtues of democratic values, the need for greater understanding between China and the United States, and his personal awakening to the problematic aspects of autocratic rule, earning him the nickname ‘Democracy Peddler’ among his followers.
In January 2019, Yang flew with his wife and child from the United States to China where he was then detained by the PRC government’s security services. He was initially held at a secret location for six months in a notorious form of extrajudicial detention called Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location, where he was reportedly tortured. In August 2019 Yang was formally arrested on suspicion of espionage without any evidence supporting the charge disclosed to his family or consular representatives.
Throughout his over two years of pre-trial detention, Yang was denied family visits and was granted limited access to legal counsel and consular visits. He was reportedly subjected to over 300 interrogations and his request for the dismissal of testimony he gave under torture was denied by the PRC government.
On 27 May 2021, Yang’s trial was held behind closed doors and reportedly lasted less than seven hours, with his consular representatives denied the ability to attend, a breach of both the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the Australia-China bilateral consular agreement.
Prior to the commencement of his trial, Yang Hengjun shared his hope that he would be able to continue writing ‘to help China to understand the world’ in a message he had transcribed while detained. When considering the trial’s potential outcome, Yang Hengjun said:
‘If worse comes to worst, if someone wants to take revenge on me for my writings, please explain to the people inside China what I did, and the significance of my writing to people in China. The values and beliefs which we shared, and which I shared with my readers, are something bigger than myself.’