Australia voices outrage as China imposes suspended death sentence on writer Yang Hengjun

Australia has condemned China after it handed a suspended death sentence to Australian writer Yang Hengjun on espionage charges.

The sentence, handed down five years after Mr Yang was detained in China and three years after his closed-door trial, shocked his family and supporters.

In a statement, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong said it was “harrowing” news for the activist’s family, and that Australia was “appalled” by the sentence.

The pro-democracy blogger, an Australian citizen born in China, was arrested at  Guangzhou airport in 2019.

An employee of China's Ministry of State Security from 1989-1999, he had been accused of spying for a country China has not publicly identified. 

The details of the case against him have not been made public and he has denied any wrongdoing.

In China, suspended sentences are generally commuted to life sentences after a certain length of time.

Wang Wenbin, a Chinese ministry spokesperson, told reporters in Beijing Yang had been found guilty of espionage and "sentenced to death with two years probation, and it was ordered that all his personal properties be confiscated".

His family was "shocked and devastated by this news, which comes at the extreme end of worst expectations", said a family spokesman in Sydney.

In August last year, Mr Yang had told relatives he fears he will die in detention after being diagnosed with a kidney cyst, prompting supporters to demand his release for medical treatment.

Yang wrote about Chinese and U.S. politics as a high-profile blogger. He was living in New York in 2019 as a visiting scholar at Columbia University who supplemented his income by working as a "daigou" or online shopping agent for Chinese consumers seeking American products.

Hopes for his release had previously been raised after the freeing of Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who spent three years in jail in China for breaking an embargo with a television broadcast on a state-run TV network.