Australian prime minister to protest blogger's detention conditions while meeting China's leader
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he will protest a lack of transparency in China’s treatment of a detained Australian democracy blogger when meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing during a trade-focused state visit
CANBERRA, Australia — Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Saturday he would protest a lack of transparency in China’s treatment of a detained Australian democracy blogger when meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing during a trade-focused state visit.
The detention of Yang Hengjun without conviction for almost five years will be one of the topics raised with Xi when they meet in the Great Hall of the People on Monday.
Yang is being held in a Beijing detention center awaiting the verdict of a 2021 closed-door trial on espionage charges. The 58-year-old’s family fears he is dying.
“I’ll be saying that Dr. Yang’s case needs to be resolved and I’ll be speaking about his human rights, the nature of the detention and the failure to have transparent processes,” Albanese told reporters in the northern Australian city of Darwin hours before he flew to Shanghai.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry this week defended Yang’s prosecution, saying his case had been handled in strict accordance with the law.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV announced that Albanese arrived in the Chinese financial hub Saturday afternoon along with his delegation, becoming the first Australian prime minister to visit China since 2016. The visit signals an improvement in strained relations between the two nations since Australia’s center-left government was elected last year.
«It’s very good to be here,” he told Australian reporters on the tarmac. “I look forward to the visit.”
He was greeted by China’s ambassador to
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