An Australian novelist jailed in China has in a letter to his supporters and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese detailed his “unbearable suffering” as he enters his seventh year in detention.
Chinese-born Yang Hengjun was last year handed a suspended death sentence by a Beijing court on espionage charges, something he denies.
In his letter, he thanked Albanese, saying he and the Australian government were doing their “utmost to bring me home for medical care and reunification with my family”.
Foreign minister Penny Wong said in a statement that she and Albanese were “deeply moved” by Dr Yang’s letter and wanted to “see him home in Australia, reunited with his family”.
Dr Yang, who previously worked for China’s Ministry of State Security, blogged about Chinese state affairs, but his writings often avoided direct criticisms of the government.
He was living in New York but travelled to Guangzhou in January 2019 with his wife and her child – both Chinese citizens – on a visa run when he was intercepted at the airport.
His case has mostly unfolded behind closed doors since then and in 2024, he was handed the suspended death sentence, which is typically converted to life imprisonment after two years.
At the time, Albanese described the sentence as an “outrage”.
But China maintains that Yang’s case was “rigorously handled” in accordance with the law. It also warned Australian officials not to interfere in the case.
Dr Yang had denied the charges but did not appeal the ruling out of concerns that it would delay medical care, his family said. There have been worries about his declining health, after a large cyst was found on one of his kidneys.
In his latest letter, Dr Yang thanked the country’s leaders as well as the Australian Embassy in China for their support during the “hardest and darkest chapter” of his life.
“All of this solicitude and solace has helped me to bear what has been untold and unbearable suffering,” he wrote.
He said that he still loved both China and Australia – the former the “motherland in which [he] was born, brought up in, and made strong”, and the latter his “beloved children’s motherland”.
“I have a dream. That there is no war, no bullying, no incivility. People of different colours, cultures, and nationalities love each other like sisters and brothers.”
Wong described Yang’s letter as “a message of profound courage, resilience and hope despite extraordinarily difficult circumstances”.
Several people in both countries have been arrested and charged with espionage and foreign interference as ties between both countries have been shaky in recent years.
In 2023, Chinese-Australian businessman Sunny Duong was found guilty of trying to influence a former minister with donations.
The same year, Australian journalist Cheng Lei was released after more than three years of detention in China on accusations of “illegally supplying state secrets overseas”.
