Former Student Sentenced To Chinese Prison

Former Kennedy School of Government student and pro-democracy activist Yang Jianli, imprisoned in China on espionage charges since April 2002, was found guilty and sentenced yesterday to five years in prison.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that Yang, a Chinese national and U.S. resident, was convicted of spying for Taiwan and illegal border crossing.

Yang’s Washington-based lawyer Jared Genser said yesterday that Yang will file an appeal of his sentence—he has 10 days to do so—though he added that the odds of getting the sentence overturned are “probably zero.”

“But the odds are pretty good that he’ll get a shorter sentence,” Genser said.

Yang was tried in August on the espionage charges but no conviction was made. The deadline for a verdict was Dec. 1, but he was not sentenced until yesterday.

Though Yang’s lawyer in Beijing, Mo Shaoping, has said that he believes Yang’s sentence will probably be reduced by the two years he has already served in prison, Genser does not believe that will happen.

“Mo Shaoping’s assumption is that he will not have to serve five years but that’s his assumption and the Chinese court has the discretion whether he’ll serve or not,” Genser said. “So until they say otherwise, it’s five years in addition to the two years.”

During his evidence hearing yesterday, Genser said Yang “refused to answer” the questions posed to him by the court.

“He said, ‘I’m being held in an illegally prolonged detention in violation of Chinese law.’ He wanted to make it clear that the deadline [for a verdict] had passed,” Genser said.

Yang’s wife, Harvard Medical School researcher Christina X. Fu, held a press conference on Capitol Hill yesterday afternoon to protest the verdict with Genser and a number of members of U.S. Congress.

Yang was arrested April 26, 2002 after entering China with a friend’s passport and traveling for a week on a fake identification card. Yang had been banned from China following his involvement in the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.

Yang’s case has received worldwide attention from human rights groups and has raised concerns among U.S. officials in Washington about China’s human rights record. Sixty-seven members of Congress sent a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao April 26—the two-year anniversary of Yang’s arrest—requesting that he be released.

“We have seen the reports and we are disappointed with this decision,” said Steve Pike, a spokesperson at the State Department, which has been trying to secure Yang’s release. “We have repeatedly called on Chinese officials to release him and we will continue to do so. We note that he had been detained without conviction for more than two years, which is against China’s own laws.”

China suspended communications with the United States in the U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue after the United States introduced a resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in March criticizing China’s human rights record. The resolution did not pass.

Last month, the State Department began investigating reports that Yang had been physically abused in prison. According to Fu, Yang was moved last month to solitary confinement where he was handcuffed, prevented from exercising and denied access to his lawyer.

A few weeks before the alleged abuses, Yang threatened to go on a hunger strike but was dissuaded from doing so by his wife.

—Staff writer May Habib can be reached at habib@fas.harvard.edu.