The family of an Australian man behind bars in China have written a heartfelt letter to Anthony Albanese ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Prime Minister heads to Beijing on Monday for a three-day visit where he will sit with the Chinese leader to discuss a number of issues.
Chinese-born Australian Yang Hengjun has been jailed for espionage since he was arrested at Guangzhou airport in January 2019 on his way to visit his sick brother.
Dr. Yang faced a closed-door trial in Beijing in May 2021 and has been languishing in a cell ever since. No verdict has been made public.
Dr Yang’s sons hope Albanese will lobby for their father’s release and that their family will soon be reunited, following the recent release of Australian journalist Cheng Lei.
Australian academic Yang Hengjun (pictured with his wife) remains in a Chinese prison on espionage charges
Dr Yang’s sons urged the Prime Minister to “act now” and “achieve a second miracle by saving our father, who has now spent four years and nine months in detention.”
“We request that you do everything in your power to save our father’s life and return him immediately to family and freedom in Australia,” they wrote.
“We ask that you make it clear that it is not possible to stabilize the bilateral relationship with a government that is detaining an Australian citizen just a few kilometers south of where you will be housed.”
“We hope that you, Secretary of State Penny Wong and Ambassador Graham Fletcher, can perform a second miracle by saving our father.”
The plea comes after supporters received an updated report from consular officials on Dr. Yang’s declining health.
His family fears he will die in prison. A 4-inch cyst was recently found on his kidney.
“The risk that our father will die from medical neglect is clear to anyone who read Wednesday’s consular report,” the letter continues.
The letter also contained a desperate plea from Dr Yang from his prison cell.
“Under Chinese law, I am still innocent, but I have been locked up for more than four years and almost destroyed,” Dr. Yang wrote.
“I just hope I can get out alive.”
Anthony Albanese (left) has been urged to raise Dr Yang’s imprisonment during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (right). Pictured are the two leaders at a meeting in 2022
Yang Hengjun’s sons have called on the Prime Minister to lobby for the academic’s release (photo)
Mr Albanese told reporters he had responded to the letter.
“We obviously always represent the interests of Australians when it comes to China,” he said on Wednesday.
“We will work together where we can, we will disagree where we must and will advance our national interests, and I will always stand up on behalf of Australians.”
Yang Hengjun (pictured) told the Prime Minister in a letter that it is almost destroyed.” “I just hope I can get out alive.”
Acting Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said lobbying for the release of Dr. Yang should be ‘very high’ on the prime minister’s agenda.
‘Dr. Yang is absolutely the prime minister’s front-of-mind on his upcoming visit to China, and he should be,” Ms Ley told Sky News Australia.
“He must take this up strongly with the president and the prime minister.
“It really needs to be made very clear that it is not acceptable for Australia to arbitrarily detain an Australian citizen for so long, in solitary confinement, in such terrible conditions.”
Albanese is the first Prime Minister to visit China since Malcolm Turnbull in 2016.
Australian journalist Cheng Lei (right) recently returned to Australia after spending three years behind bars in China. She is pictured with Foreign Minister Penny Wong