Australia is "deeply disappointed" that China has transferred Australian-Chinese writer and academic Yang Jun, who was formerly held under so-called residential surveillance, to criminal detention, the Australian Foreign Ministry said Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th July, 2019) Australia is "deeply disappointed" that China has transferred Australian-Chinese writer and academic Yang Jun, who was formerly held under so-called residential surveillance, to criminal detention, the Australian Foreign Ministry said Friday.
Yang had been held by Chinese authorities since January, when he was detained at China's Guangzhou airport after entering the country from his current residence of the United States. He has been held in a secret location, with the Beijing claiming that the writer is suspected of posing a threat to the country's security.
"The Australian Government is deeply disappointed that Australian citizen and academic Dr Yang Hengjun (Dr Yang Jun) has been transferred to criminal detention in China," Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement.
Payne added that the Australian government had expressed its concerns in relation to Yang on multiple occasions and that it would continue to advocate for the writer's interests.
The minister added that if Yang was being held for his political views then he should be released.
Yang, a 53-year-old visiting scholar at New York's prestigious Columbia University, has not been formally charged by Chinese authorities. According to Yang's lawyer, Mo Shaoping, as cited by the Asahi news outlet, Yang is suspected of endangering Beijing's national security, a major crime in China, that includes 19 individual offenses such as spying.
