AFP, SYDNEYAustralian Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne yesterday said the treatment of a writer detained in China was “unacceptable,” as his lawyer reported he was being shackled and subjected to daily interrogation. China-born Australian citizen Yang Hengjun (楊恆均) has been detained since January and was recently charged with espionage, which could bring a lengthy prison sentence. Letters were also being withheld “to cut off the conduit of information from Dr Yang to the outside world, and from the outside world to Dr Yang,” she said. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has denied that Yang — one of a string of foreign nationals recently arrested in China — was a spy. Yang reportedly once worked in the foreign ministry in Hainan Province — although this has been denied by Beijing.

Source: Taipei Times December 02, 2019 16:04 UTC