{"id":87180,"date":"2023-10-31T13:51:26","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T13:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebritytidings.com\/?p=87180"},"modified":"2023-10-31T13:51:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T13:51:26","slug":"with-cheng-lei-released-this-family-is-hoping-for-another-australian-miracle-in-beijing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebritytidings.com\/world-news\/with-cheng-lei-released-this-family-is-hoping-for-another-australian-miracle-in-beijing\/","title":{"rendered":"With Cheng Lei released, this family is hoping for another Australian \u2018miracle\u2019 in Beijing"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.<\/p>\n

Yang Hengjun has two gaps in his Beijing prison cell through which he interacts with the outside world.<\/p>\n

One is where his food comes in. The other is where it goes out.<\/p>\n

The father, writer, and pro-democracy agitator has spent four years pacing the 11 steps that make up this dungeon of a cell. He has largely been unable to read books or write letters home. Occasionally, some rays of sunlight might flicker through a glass pane, but he has not felt the direct heat of sunlight in years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yang Hengjun and his wife, Yuan Xiaoliang. <\/span><\/p>\n

Last month, Yang\u2019s family watched on as fellow Australian Cheng Lei was released from jail.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been inspired by the wonderful news of Cheng Lei\u2019s release and return to Melbourne after three years in detention,\u201d Yang\u2019s two sons said in a letter to Anthony Albanese released on Wednesday ahead of the prime minister\u2019s arrival in China this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that you, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Ambassador Graham Fletcher can achieve a second miracle by saving our father, who has now spent four years and nine months in detention.\u201d<\/p>\n

After years of torture and isolation, Yang\u2019s family is no closer to finding out why the 57-year-old is in jail. As in Cheng\u2019s case, the national security charges of espionage are vague. Cheng was detained for three years because she broke a media embargo by just a few minutes.<\/p>\n

Yang and his supporters claim he is the victim of political persecution for his outspoken criticism of the Chinese government. The University of Technology PhD graduate was detained in 2019 as relations between Australia and China began their spiral into a four-year freeze that is only now beginning to thaw.<\/p>\n

His sons, who asked not to be identified, said Yang and their mother moved to Australia because they wanted them to be brought up in \u201cthe most beautiful country in the world, where the rule of law is strong and human rights are guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now he is without human rights, and his situation is critical,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Australian Department of Foreign Affairs officials on consular visits have reported that Yang\u2019s health has rapidly declined in the past four weeks, noting he now has trouble standing and that he had collapsed several times.<\/p>\n

Chinese medical officials have identified a kidney cyst, but his family worries it is being left untreated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk of being left to die from medical maltreatment is especially clear to our father because he has seen it happen to his friends,\u201d Yang\u2019s sons wrote.<\/p>\n

Dozens of political prisoners have died in Chinese jails in the past few decades after being denied treatment for curable diseases.<\/p>\n

Yang\u2019s sons urged Albanese to do everything he could while he was in Beijing to get Yang out of jail.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask that you make clear that it is not possible to stabilise the bilateral relationship with a government that is holding an Australian citizen just a few kilometres south of where you will be hosted,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Wong said it was clear from the letter that Yang had a strong love for his country and was greatly missed by his sons.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince Dr Yang was detained, the Australian government has called for basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment to be afforded to Dr Yang, including medical treatment, in accordance with international norms and China\u2019s legal obligations,\u201d Wong said.<\/p>\n

Yang\u2019s memories have trickled back to him while he spends endless hours in the dark walking between the hole that makes up his toilet and the one that delivers his food.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remembered leaving my home in Sydney to go to China,\u201d he said in one letter released from prison. \u201cMy youngest son, who was in junior high school, suddenly appeared on the balcony and pleaded, \u2018Can you stay, Daddy?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It has been more than two years since Yang had his closed-door trial in Beijing. Any reprieve is unlikely to come during Albanese\u2019s visit. In October, the deadline for that verdict was extended for another three months to January 9.<\/p>\n

Get a note directly from our foreign <\/i><\/b>correspondents <\/i><\/b>on what\u2019s making headlines around the world. <\/i><\/b>Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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