China allows detained Australian to write to diplomats but still blocks visits over coronavirus
For the first time in more than six months, Chinese authorities have allowed detained Australian citizen Yang Hengjun to respond to Australian consular officials via letter but a visiting ban remains in place.
The 55-year-old writer has been detained without access to lawyers or family for more than 18 months in a detention centre in Beijing, accused of espionage crimes but not formally charged.
In that time his only face-to-face contact with the outside world has been with Australian consular officials permitted to visit once a month under a consular agreement.
But China’s government stopped allowing such visits in January this year as the coronavirus pandemic started – a move applied in prisons across the country.
A friend of Dr Yang, Feng Chongyi, told the ABC the Australian embassy has now received a response and that Yang Hengjun’s condition ‘seems ok’.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade didn’t immediately respond to questions after hours, while the ABC wasn’t able to contact China’s Ministry of Public Security for comment.
One of two lawyers representing Dr Yang, Shang Baojun confirmed he and his colleague Mo Shaoping have ‘repeatedly’ applied to visit their client but authorities have denied it citing coronavirus control measures.
Despite this, Mr Mo was recently able to visit a client in an unrelated case being held in the same detention facility in Beijing’s south.
Beijing and most of China has largely gone back to normal as the number of new cases remain low.
The reestablishment of communication, however limited, comes after repeated requests by Australian diplomats to either ring or correspond with Dr Yang via letter in lieu of visits.
Back in May, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Chinese authorities hadn’t responded.
Yang Hengjun once worked for China’s Ministry of State security, according to Australian officials but his friends say he definitively turned his back on it and later became a democracy advocate and prolific online writer.
He was detained upon arriving in the southern city of Guangzhou in January 2019.
By China correspondent Bill Birtles in Beijing
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiT2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA4LTA2L2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWF1c3RyYWxpYS1saXZlLW5ld3MvMTI1Mjc3NzLSASdodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTI1Mjc3NzI?oc=5
2020-08-05 22:28:00Z
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