The Australian government is shocked by this verdict, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a press conference and has appealed the verdict. The Chinese ambassador to Australia will be summoned.
Yang, a pro-democracy blogger, was arrested at Guangzhou airport in 2019. He was working in New York at the time. He was accused of espionage, but the details of the charges against him were never made public.
Since the beginning of Hengjun’s captivity, Australia has expressed concerns about the writer’s treatment in prison. He would have been chained up and isolated from the outside world. Relations between the two countries were just improving, but the Australian government sees this news as a setback.
Yang Hengjun’s family said on Monday they were “shocked and devastated” by the verdict and that it was “beyond their worst expectations”.