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Just before his arrest, he had successfully pivoted from selling ideas to selling clothes, pharmaceuticals and other products from the US to consumers hungry for foreign goods in China.
What was he charged with?
Yang was arrested at Guangzhou airport in 2019 after arriving with his wife from their home in New York. Yang was charged with espionage for an unnamed country and the exact claims against him remain shrouded in secrecy. Yang’s family and the Australian government have denied all espionage charges against him.
China’s opaque judicial system means national security trials are heard behind closed doors, leaving both the Australian government and Yang’s supporters unaware of what crimes he is alleged to have committed.
The lack of information has fuelled suggestions that he has been targeted for his outspoken criticism of the Chinese government. Yang was arrested a year before China-Australia tensions peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic but during an increase in hostility between the two countries that culminated in the Turnbull government introducing anti-foreign interference laws and banning Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from Australia’s 5G network.
How is he coping?
Yang’s health has deteriorated rapidly in his five years in jail, which have also been marked by allegations of torture and isolation.
Consular reports by Australian officials last year said Yang had trouble standing and had collapsed several times. Chinese doctors treating Yang in jail identified a 10-centimetre cyst on one of his kidneys but maintained he was in otherwise good health, prescribing three vitamin pills and egg in addition to his daily diet. Yang’s family have long feared he is being left to die in jail due to a lack of medical treatment.
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For his first four years in jail, Yang was regularly subjected to brutal interrogations and denied writing and reading materials while being isolated due to COVID restrictions.
How is his case different to Cheng Lei’s?
Both Yang and journalist Cheng Lei, who was released from a Chinese prison in October, were born in China and naturalised as Australian citizens. This means that the Chinese justice system is more likely to regard them as Chinese citizens and treat them more severely for any alleged crimes.
But Yang’s past working inside the Chinese government has put him at the highest threshold for punishment because of the way the system treats those who have deserted the country and the Chinese Communist Party.
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Yang’s case has always been treated differently to Cheng’s by Australian authorities throughout negotiations. Cheng, a TV anchor, was jailed over breaking a media embargo by just a few minutes. The Australians were never optimistic that Yang would be released at the same time as the Melbourne mother-of-two. Now their worst fears have been realised.
What are the implications for the Australia-China relationship?
Yang’s sentence is a devastating blow for Yang’s family and his supporters. It is also a major setback for Australia-China relations after a year of steadily improving ties that has led to billions of dollars in sanctions on Australian exports gradually being unwound. Yang’s case will now dominate every interaction between the leaders of the two countries, including a planned visit later this year by Premier Li Qiang.
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