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China bars US from trial of democracy activist `spy'

Yang Jianli speaks at a June 4 Memorial in 1993 at Harvard University in the US. PHOTO: AFP

The US embassy in Beijing will be barred from the trial of US-based democracy activist Yang Jianli and his wife will be arrested if she tries to enter China for the case, people close to Yang said yesterday.

Yang is due to appear tomorrow at the capital's No. 2 Intermediate People's Court facing charges of espionage, which can result in the death penalty.

"The US embassy has been denied access to the trial. The Chinese said that since the trial involved state secrets, it will be closed," said Jared Genser, Yang's US-based legal adviser and president of the rights group Freedom Now.

Yang has lived in the US since 1989 when he was forced to flee China after the crackdown on the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests.

He was detained in April last year after he entered China using a friend's passport in an attempt to observe ongoing labor unrest.

China's refusal to allow US embassy officials to observe the trial comes despite what is reported to be high-level US pressure.

Both Lorne Craner, the State Department's top human rights official, and James Kelly, its leading East Asia hand, have met with Chinese embassy officials to urge more transparency in the case, sources said.

This week the US Senate unanimously passed a resolution warning that cases like Yang's could harm relations between Beijing and Washington.

"China took what could have been a minor issue and turned it into a major one," said Genser.

An official at the US embassy in Beijing could not confirm that access to the trial had been denied, but speculated that if it were the case, it could be because Yang maintains Chinese citizenship.

"Since he is not an American citizen, the Chinese side does not have any obligation to allow us to attend," the official said.

Yang's wife, Christina Fu, told AFP from her home in the US that it would be impossible for her to go to China for her husband's trial.

"I would be arrested if I go," she said. "They said I helped him do some espionage."

"They just wanted to come up with something that was more serious than crossing the border," she said. "It's a way for them to punish my husband for his work to promote democracy in China."

While Yang has not been physically abused during his 15 months in jail, he has been interrogated "over and over again on more occasions than he could recall," Genser said.

The espionage charge is based on activities that took place a decade ago, according to a copy of an opinion on the case issued by the Beijing Bureau of National Security and obtained by AFP.

Officials from Taiwan's Kuomintang party tasked Yang with "developing a wide circle of friends, and collecting inside information, especially government documents on Taiwan policy and living conditions of the mainland people," the opinion said.

According to Yang supporters, he was merely encouraged by representatives of the Kuomintang to give US$100 each to four people, including three relatives and a friend, to fund various projects in China.

Yang, a father of two, is the founder and president of the Foundation for China in the 21st Century which seeks to promote the cause of democracy in China.
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