The Australian Greens condemn in the strongest terms the Chinese Government\u2019s decision to formally indict Australian citizen Dr Yang Hengjun on espionage charges.
\nLeader of the Greens and foreign policy spokesperson Adam Bandt said the Australian Government had an important role to play in securing his freedom, and with charges now laid, the window of opportunity to get him free may be closing.
\n\u201cThe first duty of any government should be to keep its people safe, and while the government may be distracted, Dr Yang doesn\u2019t have any time to spare,\u201d Mr Bandt said.
\n\u201cFor more than a year, Dr Yang has been subject to appalling treatment by the Chinese authorities.\u00a0 He has had no access to legal representation, he has been refused letters from family and friends, and has been denied the opportunity to meet with Australian officials.
\n\u201cThere have been periods where he\u2019s been forced to sit on a stool for 17 hours straight \u2013 and now, Dr Yang could face the death penalty. We don\u2019t even know what he is supposed to have done wrong.
\n\u201cThe fact that the Chinese Government has chosen to charge Dr Yang now, amidst a global pandemic, is a disgrace.\u00a0 He must be released immediately and allowed to leave China with his wife.
\n\u201cCalling for democratic reform in China should not be a crime. I welcome the strong statement from Foreign Minister Payne, and urge the Prime Minister to speak directly with his Chinese counterpart to call for Dr Yang\u2019s freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Australian Greens condemn in the strongest terms the Chinese Government\u2019s decision to formally indict Australian citizen Dr Yang Hengjun on espionage charges. Leader of the Greens and foreign policy spokesperson Adam Bandt said the Australian Government had an important role to play in securing his freedom, and with charges now laid, the window of … Continue reading “Greens urge Australian Government to intervene in case of Australian citizen detained in China”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}