‘The most harrowing news’ - Australia appalled after writer given suspended death sentence in China

Facing the law: A filepic of Yang and his wife Yuan Xiaoliang. He was sentenced by a Beijing court ‘in an espionage case in accordance with the law’. — AP

Chinese-Australian dissident writer Yang Jun has been handed a suspended death sentence for espionage in China, Beijing and Canberra said, five years after he was arrested on a rare visit to his homeland.

The Chinese-born Australian citizen has been in jail in China since 2019 on spying allegations and is said to be in ill health.