The trial of Australian writer Yang Hengjun, who has been in Beijing since January 2019, has been delayed for three months, according to his former teacher and supporter Feng Chongyi.
A 55-year-old pro-democracy blogger, arrested at Guangzhou airport after arriving from New York, is facing a lengthy prison sentence after Chinese authorities accused him of endangering national security by joining or receiving equipment from an unknown spy agency.
300 Rounds Of Interrogation
The trial before Beijing’s Second Intermediate Central People’s Court was scheduled to begin in January but was delayed, Feng of Sydney said on Monday.
Yang had previously said that he would not admit to anything he did not do.
“Yang’s refusal to plead guilty despite 300 rounds of investigations creates a real challenge for the formal confession process,” Feng said.
China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Who Is This Australian Writer?
Yang was a former Chinese spy who worked in Hong Kong and Washington before leaving the profession to become a democratic lawyer, according to a secret letter he wrote to Feng in 2011. He also wrote spy novels published in Taiwan.
Yang, who became an Australian citizen in 2002, was living in the United States, where he was a visiting scientist at Columbia University, before flying to Guangzhou with his family in January 2019. His wife and child were able to enter China but authorities escorted Yang from a plane and arrested him.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had earlier said allegations that Yang was a spy “were completely untrue”.
More About Yang
Yang Hengjun whose legal name is Yang Jun, is a Chinese-Australian writer and blogger. According to Yang’s own accounts, he studied at Fudan University. After graduating, Yang worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing.
According to Yang’s own accounts, he studied at Fudan University. After graduating, Yang worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing. China’s Foreign Ministry denied Yang had ever been employed by the ministry, according to a Reuters report in 2019.
From 1992 to 1997, Yang worked in Hong Kong as the manager of a mainland Chinese company. Afterwards, he went to the U.S. as a senior fellow of the Atlantic Council. Yang is believed to become an Australian citizen in the early 2000s, while still holding a PRC passport. Yang is regarded as a divisive figure among overseas Chinese dissidents and activists.
Yang is currently under arrest by the Chinese Government, facing one charge of espionage, but the basis of the charge was unknown.
