The ad hoc nature of Beijing’s bungling and bullying foreign policy has been highlighted yet again through the differing treatment of political prisoners Yang Hengjun and Cheng Lei.
Both Australian citizens were apprehended for spurious alleged crimes against the state. The possible penalties were harsh. In a dictatorship where the judiciary is the lapdog of the leadership, one can get an insight into the party’s thinking and priorities from the judge’s gavel and decision.
At a time when it suited the Beijing dictatorship to allow relations with Australia to thaw, Cheng Lei was unexpectedly released.
It was hailed as a diplomatic coup and a success for Foreign Minister Penny Wong. All of Australia celebrated Cheng Lei’s release. The export discussions became more relaxed.
Freedom and return to Australia after three long years in detention must have been surreal for Ms. Cheng.
An experience that will most certainly be permanently imprinted in her mind, and needs to be told time and time again to remind Australians that the regime is not benign and run by a cuddly “Winnie the Pooh”-type bear.
This regime brutally uses its judicial system and criminal laws for political outcomes, and suppresses minorities like Falun Gong and Christians alike.
For Cheng Lei, it suited the immediate purposes of the regime to showcase itself as reasonable and compassionate. Let’s make no mistake, Cheng Lei should never have been charged in the first place.
Not so fortunate was Yang Hengjun who now languishes in a prison cell with a pending suspended death penalty after being convicted of a serious “crime.”
It has taken five years for the judicial system in Beijing to come to this resolution.
The delay and the punishment meted out is unconscionable. Mr. Yang languished for five years in a prison cell before his conviction.
The tortuous uncertainty and delay came to a shuddering halt with his conviction and sentencing, resulting in a suspended death sentence. The 58-year-old Yang underwent a secret trial in 2021 for what is assumed to be related to his anti-Beijing stance on many issues.
At a time of heightened rhetoric over Taiwan, the communist regime has let all other potential dissident voices know what awaits them should they speak out.
And it’s not only for those living in China. It is a very stern warning to all people of Chinese origin who may speak for freedom and peace against the regime in another country. Do so, then don’t bother visiting family in China.
The same chill fills the bosoms of Falun Gong practitioners around the world. The dictatorship’s increased brittleness is being displayed by its heavy-handed approach.
Living in their cocoon the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) power brokers may not understand the bemusement their antics elicit.
For anyone who believes in the rule of law, fair trials, and open trials, which should be at the very heart of any half-respectable judicial system, the latest outcomes in China, courtesy of the dictatorship’s control, should leave the world community ice-cold.
To think that during the Turnbull prime ministership and Julie Bishop’s stewardship of the Foreign Ministry, there was a serious proposal to have an extradition treaty between Australia and the CCP is mind-boggling.
Those who vehemently opposed the proposal for all the reasons that are now so very apparent, have undoubtedly been vindicated.
But it does beg the question of how such a proposition even got past first base right through to Cabinet and the Party Room? To assert there was any equivalence between Australia’s sophisticated democracy and China’s brutal dictatorship was seen by some as an insult of mammoth proportions.
Thank goodness it never proceeded.
The beneficial outcome for Cheng Lei and the brutal and barbaric outcome for Yang Hengjun are both the outcomes of a principle-devoid regime. It’s neither fair nor just—concepts completely foreign to the power elite in Beijing.
