Ministry for State Security

• The Chinese-Australian academic and writer, Yang Hengjun, has been detained in China for five years on suspicion of spying for Australia.
• A secret trial was held in 2021 with no family, friends or Australian consular officials permitted in the courtroom.
• Today, his fate has finally been made clear: Yang received a suspended death sentence which can be commuted to life in prison after two years of good behaviour.

Yang’s background

• Yang was born in China and previously worked in the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of State Security.
• He later moved to Australia, where he became a citizen in 2002, and then to the US where had been a visiting scholar at Columbia University from 2017.
• Yang had been detained in China previously in 2011, but was quickly released ahead of a visit to China by then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

How frequently is the death penalty used in China?

• China has a notorious record of imposing the death penalty for a number of different offences.
• While there has been a downward trend in the number of countries that retain the death penalty and actually carry out executions, reliable data on China is impossible to attain.
• As such, Amnesty no longer includes any Chinese figures in its annual Global Death Penalty reports.

Does Yang have any rights left under international law?

• Yang can still appeal his sentence through the Chinese legal system, which effectively provides him with certain levels of protection until his appeals have been exhausted.
• Diplomatically, though, this would be a basis for Australia to continue to advocate for his release on humanitarian grounds.

Is there anything Australia can do for Yang now?

• This is significant as convictions for a capital offence in China are typically followed quickly by an execution.
• Yang’s Australian citizenship will have no doubt have been taken into account in this instance.
• Any formal efforts by Australia to provide Yang with diplomatic protection under international law are constrained while his legal case is still playing out.

Has China treated Yang with procedural fairness?

• Australia had very few options to ensure Yang was being afforded these rights in China.
• China has respected some of the minimum entitlements under this agreement, which has enabled consular staff to meet with Yang and monitor his wellbeing, though China restricted access during the peak periods of the COVID-19 lockdown.
• And as Amnesty International notes, China has not put forth any evidence to support its assertion that Yang was, indeed, a spy.

Donald Rothwell receives funding from Australian Research Council