Take Action for Banned Books Week 2020

Release Yang Hengjun Immediately

Yang Hengjun is a prominent writer and blogger known for his often outspoken commentary on Chinese public affairs. He moved to Australia in 1999 and became a citizen in 2002.

Between 2002 and 2005, he wrote a trilogy of spy novels about a China‐US double agent that was published on his blog site. Yang earned a Ph.D. in 2009 at the University of Technology, Sydney in Chinese Studies with a dissertation titled “The Internet and China: The Impacts of Netizen Reporters and Bloggers on Democratization in China.” Prior to his detention, he was a visiting scholar at Columbia University.

Yang flew to the city of Guangzhou with his family in January 2019 and was detained by police upon arrival. He was initially held in “residential surveillance at a designated location,” which allows the government to hold individuals for up to six months outside the formal detention system in what can amount to a form of secret incommunicado detention.

He was formally arrested in August 2019 and is believed to be held in the Beijing State Security Bureau Detention Center, where he has been denied consular access since December 30, 2019. In March 2020, Chinese authorities finally announced it would charge Yang with espionage. He has denied that he was ever a spy for any government.

Individuals convicted of espionage face a minimum of three years’ imprisonment. Those deemed to have caused “particularly serious harm to the country and the people” may be sentenced to death. Suspects in national security trials are regularly deprived of procedural rights afforded to ordinary suspects, including access to legal counsel of their choice and the right to a public hearing.

Updated on Aug 24, 2020.

⬇ Make Your Voice Heard ⬇

Ambassador

Xie

Fang

Chinese Embassy in the United States

Dear Chief Procurator Zhang Yukun,
 
The undersigned wish to express concern for Australian-Chinese writer Yang Hengjun (杨恒均), who was taken into police custody at Guangzhou airport January 19, 2019. Detained without charge for more than a year, it was only in March 2020 that an official statement was made that he would face charges of espionage. He is believed to be detained at the Beijing State Security Bureau Detention Center. Yang has denied all allegations of espionage.

Prohibited from seeing his family or a lawyer of his choice, Yang was initially allowed a monthly, half-hour visit from a representative from the Australian consulate. Since December 30, 2019, no one had  seen or heard from Yang for eight months, but, finally, on August 31, Australian consular officials were allowed to meet with him via video link.

Yang has reportedly been subjected to more than 300 interrogations for hours at a time, and we fear that he is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment. We also worry that Yang is not getting the proper medical care that he needs. Suffering from memory loss, dizziness, blood pressure related issues, and several other serious health conditions, it is crucial that he get immediate and proper care.

We call on you to:
 
 - Release Yang Hengjun immediately and unconditionally unless there is sufficient credible and admissible evidence that he has committed an internationally recognized offense and is granted a fair trial in line with international standards;
 
- Pending his release, ensure that Yang has regular, unrestricted access to consular visits and family and lawyers of his choice and is not subjected to torture and other ill-treatment.

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