Widespread News Coverage on Yang JianliJared Genser Dear Friends, There has been widespread coverage over the past few days of both the sentencing of Yang Jianli to five years in prison and our response to the sentence. At this point, we are trying to send the clear message to the PRC that this situation needs to be resolved. We are hoping that Members of Congress call Ambassador Yang Jiechi to register their deep concern over his verdict and to urge the PRC to release Yang. The Embassy's phone number is (202) 328-2500, and one can reach a switchboard operator by dialing 0. Congressional staff can call Xu Dong in the Congressional relations office of the Embassy at (202) 328-2595. Over 200 articles (including reprints from wire services) have appeared around the world in the last two days. For your information, I have attached below the ten best stories, leading with the stories from our press conference yesterday: 1. Agence France Presse, "U.S. lawmakers condemn sentencing of leading Chinese dissident," May 13, 2004 2. Associated Press, "Boston-based political activist sentenced in China," May 13, 2003 3. Voice of America, "U.S. Lawmakers Criticize China for Jailing U.S.-Based Dissident," May 13, 2004 4. Washington Post, "China Gives Prison Term To Dissident Based in U.S.", May 14, 2003 5. New York Times, "U.S.-based dissident sentenced in China", May 14, 2004 6. Los Angeles Times, "China Imprisons Boston-Area Dissident", May 13, 2004 7. CNN, "China jails U.S.-based dissident", May 13, 2004 8. Agence France Presse, "Leading Chinese dissident Yang Jianli gets five years for spying", May 13, 2004 9. Reuters, "China jails U.S.-based scholar for spying," May 13, 2004 10. Associated Press, "China Sentences U.S.-Based Dissident", May 13, 2004 Warm regards, Jared
U.S. lawmakers condemn sentencing of leading Chinese dissident WASHINGTON (AFP) - US lawmakers condemned the five-year prison sentence issued by China on prominent US-based dissident Yang Jianli, saying it highlighted Beijing's disregard for the law and human rights. The National Security Council, President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s principal forum for considering national security and foreign policy, expressed concern over the verdict and the sentencing, Yang's wife Christina Fu told reporters. Chinese authorities on Thursday ordered that Yang be jailed for five years for spying and illegal entry, charges which his lawyer termed as baseless. Yang had fled China following the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests but was arrested when he tried to secretly sneak into the country using his friend's passport in April 2002. "I don't think they (China) understand what harm they are doing to their desire to be accepted as a leading nation among other nations by this relentless and unjustified persecution of this brave and principled man," said Barney Frank, an opposition Democratic party member of the House of Representatives. Frank, who represents Massachusetts, said the notion that Yang was spying for Taiwan "does not bear any serious scrutiny," adding that his only offence could have been a minor violation of immigration laws for which a five-year sentence was "too long." Since his arrest in April 2002, the Harvard University research fellow has been one of the most high-profile dissidents in Chinese custody with US Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) raising the case during his visit to China last month. The US Congress had passed several non-binding resolutions calling for the release of Yang, who had also been reportedly mistreated in prison. Some 67 legislators sent a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao on April 26, warning that bilateral ties could suffer if Beijing did not release the 40-year-old Yang. Christopher Cox, the Republican legislator from California, said the prison sentence on Yang "makes it extraordinarily difficult to treat the People's Republic of China as a civilised and rational government and to maintain a dialogue with it." He wondered whether the Chinese government felt it was an auspicious time to announce the verdict this week because US attention had been wholly concentrated on the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal. Cox said the United States government had swiftly moved to investigate charges of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers in an open manner, promising to convict the culprits and compensate the victims. "In the PRC, however, prisoner abuse is not exceptional and when it is discovered, it is not compensated or even stopped," he said. "It is government policy -- for more than two years the government of China has illegally imprisoned Dr Yang." Another opposition lawmaker, Michael Capuano, said China might have thrown Yang in jail but "they wil never hold his spirit or spirits of people like him in their fight for democracy for all of us." Fu, Jiang's wife, said her husband would definitely appeal against the sentence. She said that a National Security Council officer called her Thursday, "assuring me that the United States is very concerned about this verdict and deeply troubled by the sentencing of Jiang." Jared Genser, Jiang's family lawyer in Washington, said the basis for the espionage charges against Yang were four 100 dollar grants that the dissident's former organization, the China Youth Development Foundation, gave to individuals in China for agriculture research and other "innocuous" activities. But the Chinese authorities charged that the 400 dollars was given to Yang by an agent of the then ruling party -- which the government itself had never classified as an intelligence agency, Genser said.
Boston-based political activist sentenced in China
By LOLITA C. BALDOR WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress condemned the Chinese government Thursday for sentencing Boston-based political activist Yang Jianli to five years in prison on charges of spying for rival Taiwan. Lawmakers said Chinese officials have held Yang for two years and it is time to let him go free. "I don't think the Chinese government understands the harm they are doing by this relentless and unjustified prosecution," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. "You've proved your point, you've convicted him. No purpose is served by continuing his imprisonment." The sentence comes more than eight months after Yang was tried in Beijing, on charges of espionage and illegal entry. He has been jailed in China for two years. Speaking on Capitol Hill, Yang's wife, Christina Fu, said his supporters will be appealing the verdict as soon as it is issued in writing next week. "My sadness is beyond words," Fu said during a press conference in Washington, D.C. "This means my husband will not be home tomorrow. I know he is not a spy." Frank and Reps. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., and Christopher Cox, R-Calif., said the two years Yang has served are more than enough for what they called "a minor infraction of immigration rules." Yang, a Chinese citizen with permanent U.S. residency, was in China in April 2002, to meet with dissidents and protesting laid-off workers, when he was stopped while boarding an airline flight using a false identity card. His lawyer, Mo Shaoping, said Yang will decide within five days whether to appeal, once a written verdict is issued. "As his lawyer, I entered a not guilty plea for him," he said. "I do not agree with this verdict." The government hasn't released any of its evidence against Yang. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing had no immediate comment on his conviction. Yang heads the Foundation for China in the 21st Century, an advocacy group calling for political change in China. His family said he was using a friend's identity card to travel because the Chinese government refused to renew his passport. Yang's detention has been condemned repeatedly by Congress. High-ranking State Department and Bush administration officials, including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, have discussed his situation with Chinese authorities on numerous occasions.
U.S. Lawmakers Criticize China for Jailing U.S.-Based Dissident Members of Congress have sharply criticized China for sentencing a U.S. based political dissident, Yang Jianli, to five years in prison on charges including espionage. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill call the sentence, coming after two years of detention for Mr. Yang, unjustified and urged Beijing to release him. Mr. Jianli went to China two years ago. News of the jail sentence caught some lawmakers who have worked for his release for the past two years by surprise. At a hastily-arranged news conference, several appeared with his wife, Christina Fu, to condemn the decision by the Chinese court. Republican Congressman Christopher Cox is chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. He said that the court verdict makes it difficult to sustain a constructive dialogue with Beijing. "I don't know whether the PRC government believes that this was an auspicious time for them to announce the verdict because America's attentions were wholly concentrated elsewhere," hes said. "But the PRC apparatus is wrong to believe it can quiet international outrage on this matter by simply issuing a verdict and hiding Dr. Yang away. Last year, the House and Senate both passed resolutions calling for Mr. Yang's release. In a recent letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao, lawmakers called his detention "extraordinarily inhumane" The government in Beijing called these and other protests "interference in the judicial process of China." However, Jared Genser, Mr. Yang's U.S. attorney, said that the Chinese government knows the case against him was weak, particularly the charge of espionage. "Putting all these legal issues aside, we know quite clearly why Yang Jianli is in prison today," he added. "He is in prison because he has strongly expressed his views about bringing peace and democracy to China. And that, in actuality, is his sole offense." Congressman Barney Frank called the sentence "excessive" and had this message for Beijing. "I do not think they [China's government] understand what harm they are doing to their desire to be accepted as a leading nation among other nations, by this relentless and unjustified persecution of this brave, principled man," he stated. Mr. Yang's wife, Christina Fu, said that she was "sad beyond words" at news of her husband's jail sentence, but will continue to stand by him. "Deep in my heart, I know that he is not a spy and he is innocent," she said. "All he wanted to do is to help his country and to help his fellow Chinese citizens." Christina Fu told reporters she was contacted by an official of the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) who said the Bush administration is very concerned and "deeply troubled" by the verdict and will continue efforts to obtain her husband's release. The Bush administration announced a few weeks ago its decision to sponsor a resolution in the U.N. Human Rights Commission criticizing China.
China Gives Prison Term To Dissident Based in U.S.
Five-Year Sentence Comes Despite American Urgings HONG KONG, May 13 -- China sentenced a prominent dissident and longtime U.S. resident to five years in prison on Thursday despite repeated appeals for his release by Congress, the Bush administration and human rights groups. Yang Jianli, 40, who runs a foundation in Boston that advocates democratic reform in China, received the sentence immediately after being convicted by a Beijing court of spying for Taiwan and entering China on a false passport, the official New China News Agency reported. Yang denied the charges during a closed-door trial in August. He was detained in 2002 when he returned to China after more than a decade in exile in the United States. Yang's case has generated strong support in the United States, where he earned doctorates in political economy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and in math at the University of California at Berkeley. Yang is a permanent resident of the United States, and his wife and two young children are citizens. Senior Bush administration officials have pressed for Yang's release in meetings with Chinese leaders, and both the House and the Senate unanimously passed resolutions urging China to free him. Last month, on the second anniversary of Yang's detention,67 members of Congress signed a letter to President Hu Jintao calling his treatment "extraordinarily inhumane." "I'm saddened beyond words," said his wife, Christina Fu, by telephone from Boston. "Although I realize that things could be worse, five years is still very heavy on our family and our children and also for his parents." Jared Genser, a family attorney, said he hoped the Chinese government would react to international pressure by deporting Yang, as it has other prisoners. He urged the State Department to file a strong protest in Beijing and asked members of Congress to contact the Chinese ambassador in Washington. "These next couple of days are critical," Genser said. Yang fled to the United States after taking part in the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square and was exiled. But in April 2002, he used a friend's passport to return to China and observe large-scale labor protests in the northeastern part of the country. Police arrested him and charged him with entering China illegally, a crime that carries a maximum one-year prison term. Prosecutors later accused him of spying for Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing claims is part of China. Yang is the latest in a series of Chinese living overseas who have been arrested upon returning to the mainland and then convicted of spying for Taiwan with little or no evidence presented in public. His attorneys said China violated its own laws by holding him without trial for 14 months and waiting more than nine months after the trial to issue a verdict. When Yang protested his detention last month by refusing orders to fold his blanket, wear a uniform or answer when addressed by his prisoner number, he was placed in solitary confinement with his wrists handcuffed behind his back until they bled, Genser said. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Liu Jianchao, defended the government's handling of the case, saying Yang was allowed to present a full defense in court. "The Chinese judicial departments have been trying this case and made a sentence in accordance with the law," Liu said.
U.S.-based dissident sentenced in China BEIJING - A Chinese court sentenced a U.S.-based political activist to five years in prison on charges of spying for Taiwan in a case that prompted protests by Washington. The activist, Yang Jianli, was detained in 2002, when he traveled to China to meet with dissidents and labor protesters. The official Xinhua News Agency, which announced the verdict Thursday, said the trial had been conducted in a closed court in line with national security laws. Yang's wife, Christina Fu, who led an international campaign on his behalf, said the conviction will be appealed. "I know he is not a spy. He is innocent," she said at a news conference in Washington. Yang, a Chinese citizen who has permanent residency in the United States, is a veteran of the 1989 democracy protests in Beijing. He later moved to suburban Boston, where he started the Foundation for China in the 21st Century, which advocates political change in China. Banned from entering China, he visited the country using a friend's passport and traveled domestically using a false identity card, family members acknowledged. He was detained while trying to board a commercial flight. The case is the latest in a string in which China has used vague but grave charges of spying for Taiwan, its archrival, to intimidate ethnic Chinese who travel to the mainland to engage in activities that do not have the support of the communist government. Last year, another U.S.-based dissident, Wang Bingzhang, was sentenced to life in prison by China on charges of spying for Taiwan as well as plotting to bomb a Chinese embassy abroad. Gao Zhan, a U.S.-based sociologist, was also convicted on spying charges after she conducted sensitive academic research in China. She was deported after her conviction on spying charges in 2001. The State Department and members of Congress repeatedly protested Yang's detention without trial. Last month, on the second anniversary of his detention, members of Congress addressed a letter to President Hu Jintao calling Yang's treatment "extraordinarily inhumane" and demanding his immediate release. His trial and sentencing took place shortly after. The five-year sentence is fairly light, given the espionage charges against him. That suggests that China may be getting ready to deport him rather than forcing him to serve the full term.
China Imprisons Boston-Area Dissident By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer BEIJING China sentenced a high-profile dissident to five years in jail today on charges of spying for Taiwan and entering China illegally. The case, involving Boston-area resident Yang Jianli, has received widespread attention in the United States and Western Europe. Yang, a scholar and former Tiananmen activist, was blacklisted after he left the country in 1989. He entered China using a friend's passport in 2002 and was detained in late April of that year in southern China after visiting the northeastern rust belt to study labor unrest. Mo Shaoping, Yang's lawyer, called today's sentence unjust. The family is considering an appeal after it sees the written decision, due in five days. The Taiwan charges are baseless, Mo said, while Yang's use of someone else's passport is an administrative offense that carries a maximum of five days detention. "Since I'm defending his innocence, I, of course dispute the sentence," he said. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference today that the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court acted properly. "China's judicial mechanism heard and delivered judgment on this case in complete accordance with Chinese law," he said. The U.S. State Department and human rights groups have called repeatedly for Yang's release, while U.S. lawmakers warned last month that his continued detention could strain Sino-U.S. relations. His attorney and family maintain that his imprisonment of more than two years without sentencing is a violation of Chinese law. Yang, 40, provided financial support for the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests, which ended in a military crackdown that killed several hundred and possibly thousands of Chinese citizens. The U.S. government has less ability to apply pressure because Yang is a permanent resident, but not an American citizen. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said it was aware of today's action but had no comment. The case was complicated by Yang's decision to misrepresent his identity, an action that has made most governments more wary since Sept. 11, 2001. Yang's activities overseas have arguably irked the Chinese government at least as much as his limited role in helping finance the 1989 protests. While pursuing doctorates in mathematics at Berkeley and political economy at Harvard, he helped organize several conferences advocating peaceful resistance to Communist Party rule in China. His wife, Fu Xiang, has helped spearhead the campaign for his release. It's not clear why Yang decided to re-enter China knowing he would be a target. "You have to ask him," said Nicholas Becquelin, Hong Kong-based research director of Human Rights in China. "He probably hoped he could get away with using a friend's passport. He took a gamble and he lost." Lu Siqing, head of the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights in China, said the real fault for any misrepresentation lies with China, which refused to allow one of its own citizens to enter their own country, a violation of U.N. principles. "I don't think he did anything wrong," he said. China announced the sentence as a brief item on its government-run New China News Service, claiming Yang was told by "a Taiwanese spy organization" in San Francisco in 1991 to "collect confidential papers of the Chinese government." The wire agency claims he later established his own spy agency with funds from Taiwan. Yang Jianjun, Yang's brother, called the charge ridiculous. The only money Yang distributed when he returned was a few hundred dollars to family members. "We have absolutely nothing to do with Taiwan," he said. Relatives said they have no indication China will deport Yang as it has done in other high-profile cases. But human rights experts said he is now well positioned to become a bargaining chip for China. Beijing has a history of releasing marquee detainees at politically strategic moments. Chinese dissident Wang Dan was released in 1998, two months before President Clinton made his first trip to China. And two dissidents were released in 1994 just as Secretary of State Warren Christopher visited Beijing. Releasing human rights detainees and promptly sending them overseas should not be interpreted as a sign of growing tolerance on China's part, however, said Gianni Criveller, a Hong Kong-based theologian and watchdog of religious issues in China. Exiling them ensures they have no impact on the domestic debate, he said. "And they shouldn't be in prison in the first place," he added. Becquelin of Human Rights in China said the length of time required to issue Yang's decision suggests there may have been a dispute within China's Politburo. Beijing also sought to send a clear message to other dissidents, he added. "It's significant that next month is the 15th anniversary of June 4th and Tiananmen," he said. "The government intends to continue its repression of June 4th activists."
China jails U.S.-based dissident BEIJING, China (CNN) -- A Beijing court has sentenced a U.S.-based Chinese dissident to five years in prison after convicting him of espionage and illegal border crossing, his lawyer said. Yang Jianli has already been imprisoned in Beijing for more than two years. He will not receive credit for time served, according to his U.S.-based attorney Jared Genser. Yang, a Chinese scholar living in the Boston area with permanent U.S. residency, was arrested in April 2002 on charges of using a friend's passport to enter China and traveling with a fake identity card for a week to observe labor unrest in northeastern China. Genser said the spying charge was related to a small foundation that Yang ran from his home from 1992 to 1993. The Chinese government charged that he received $400 in funding from a person in Taiwan who had ties a political party there. The court has five days to deliver the verdict personally to Yang or a family member, and Yang will have another 10 days to appeal. He was indicted last July in Beijing after spending more than a year in jail, and a secretive three-hour trial was held a month later. No verdict was released after the brief trial and no observers were allowed in the courtroom because the case reportedly involved state secrets, Yang's attorney, Mo Shaoping, said at the time. U.S. embassy officials had sought to attend the trial without success, Mo said. According to Genser, a verdict in the case was due by December of last year -- the deadline under Chinese law. In March, Yang staged a three-day protest from prison because of the delay. Yang operates the Boston-based Foundation for China in the 21st Century and has been blacklisted by Chinese authorities since 1989 for his participation in pro-democracy demonstrations. The U.S. Senate last summer condemned Yang's lengthy detention and called for his immediate and unconditional release. CNN's Tara Duffy contributed to this story.
Leading Chinese dissident Yang Jianli gets five years for spying Thu May 13, 3:41 AM ET BEIJING, (AFP) - China has jailed prominent dissident Yang Jianli, a US resident, for five years on charges of spying and illegal entry, ignoring top-level American and United Nations (news - web sites) concern over the case. Since his arrest in April 2002, the Harvard University research fellow has been one of the most high-profile dissidents in Chinese custody with US Vice President Dick Cheney raising the case during his visit to China last month. "Yang ... was directed by a Taiwan spy organization in 1991 in San Francisco to collect confidential papers of the Chinese government and he later established his own spy agency with funds from Taiwan to expand his undertakings in China's mainland," Xinhua news agency said, citing the court. Mo Shaoping, Yang's lawyer, confirmed the sentence, but insisted that the charges were baseless and that the court lacked evidence for the verdict. "As his lawyer, I believe all the charges are without basis," Mo told AFP. "According to Chinese law he can appeal the sentence, but I don't know if he will." Yang fled China following the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests and was blacklisted by the government which refused to renew his passport or issue him travel documents to return to his homeland, in violation of international law. He tried to secretly sneak into China in April 2002, but was arrested in southwestern Kunming city. It was unclear Thursday if Chinese authorities would release Yang into exile, as they have done in other high-profile cases that have appeared to be political in nature and have lacked evidence and due process. Mo, however, refused to detail the specifics of the case as it was classified as pertaining to "state secrets." "Today's verdict was only an oral verdict, I can tell you more when the official verdict is issued within five days," Mo said. Mo said Yang appeared in relatively good health at the hearing and insisted that the proceedings were illegal due to the court's failure to rule on the case within the proscribed time limits set by law. His arrest garnered a huge outpouring of opposition overseas with the US government and Congress clamoring for his release and the United Nations Human Rights Commission expressing concern over lack of due process in the case. "The non-observance of Mr. Yang Jianli's right to a fair trial is of such gravity as to give his deprivation of liberty an arbitrary character," the UN said in May 2003. Following the UN opinion Chinese authorities allowed Yang the right to legal counsel after spending a year in police custody incommunicado, said Jared Genser, director of US-based rights group Freedom Now. "The Chinese government will be hearing a lot from us in the coming days over the lack of justice in China," he told AFP. Besides Freedom Now, a large swathe of the exiled Chinese dissident community has participated in a noisy campaign for Yang's release. On April 27, 67 members of the US Congress wrote a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao demanding his release. "Of course we are not satisfied with this verdict, it was too sudden and they did not tell us in advance that a verdict would be reached today," Yang's brother Yang Jianjun told AFP. He said he was notified Monday that he could attend a hearing "to introduce new evidence," the first time the court has allowed a family member to see Yang. "It was the first time that we've seen each other in 18 years," Yang said. "They wouldn't let us speak to each other, but we had a chance to embrace after they read the sentence ... after we embraced they criticized us for disrupting court order."
China jails U.S.-based scholar for spying Updated: 1:34 a.m. ET May 13, 2004 BEIJING, May 13 - China sentenced U.S.-based scholar Yang Jianli to five years in jail on Thursday for illegally entering the country and spying in a case that has triggered widespread criticism abroad, his lawyer said. Yang, a permanent U.S. resident and veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, was arrested in April 2002 after entering China on a friend's passport and travelling for a week on a fake identity card to observe labour unrest in the northeastern rust belt. "He was sentenced to five years in jail," said lawyer Mo Shaoping. He said he believed that included the more than two years Yang had already spent in detention. His case has drawn attention overseas from rights groups and governments who complain that he was detained without a hearing for too long and abused in jail. The U.S. State Department has repeatedly called for his release. Last month, on the second anniversary of Yang's detention, a group of U.S. lawmakers warned that Sino-U.S. relations would be harmed by his continued imprisonment and what they called his "brutal treatment." There was no immediate indication that Yang would be deported, a policy that China has employed after sentencing some other high-profile U.S.-based political prisoners. When Yang was tried in August last year for illegal entry and espionage for Taiwan, no verdict was given. But his lawyers and wife saw the chances of a not-guilty verdict as slim. "Of course we think this judgment is wrong," Yang's lawyer Mo said. Yang had not decided yet whether to appeal but had 10 days in which to do so, Mo said. Hoping for deportation Yang's wife, Christina Fu, said she was relieved the sentence was relatively short, but unsure what would happen to him in the absence of word on whether he would be deported. "It's not as bad as I thought," she said by telephone from Boston. "Later on they can still reduce the sentence, so I think five years really isn't that bad. "I hope he can be deported," she said. A precedent exists. U.S.-based Chinese sociologist Gao Zhan was deported in 2001 after a Chinese court convicted her of spying for rival Taiwan. The Beijing No.2 Intermediate People's Court declined to comment. The U.S. embassy also declined immediate comment. Fu had lobbied the White House, the U.S. Congress and State Department to help win her husband's release. Yang, who was living in the United States as a legal resident after being blacklisted by China for participating in the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations, was detained on April 26, 2002, in southern China. By Chinese law, a Beijing court should have handed down a verdict or set him free within two and a half months of the closed-door, one-day trial. After several months without a verdict, Yang in mid-March refused to wear his prison fatigues, to fold his prison blanket or to answer to his prison number, insisting he be addressed by name, Fu's attorney has said.
China Sentences U.S.-Based Dissident 04:22 AM EST - May 13, 2004 The Associated Press BEIJING A Chinese court sentenced a U.S.-based political activist Thursday to five years in prison on charges of spying for rival Taiwan in a case that prompted protests by Washington. Yang Jianli, who was detained in 2002, was also convicted of illegal border crossing after a trial in a Beijing court, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The one-sentence report did not give any other details. Yang, a Chinese citizen with permanent U.S. residency, was in China to meet with dissidents and protesting laid-off workers when he was stopped while boarding an airline flight using a false identity card. Yang will decide within five days whether to appeal, once a written verdict is issued, said his lawyer, Mo Shaoping. "As his lawyer, I entered a not guilty plea for him," Mo said. "I do not agree with this verdict." The government hasn't released any of its evidence against Yang. The verdict was announced by the official Xinhua News Agency, which said he was tried in a closed court in line with Chinese national security laws. A man who answered the phone at the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court refused to give details or his name. Yang is one of a series of foreign-based Chinese who have been convicted in recent years on charges of spying for Taiwan, which split with the mainland in 1949. Yang's sentence includes the two years he has been held since his April 26, 2002, detention in the southwestern city of Kunming, Mo said. Yang, 40, lives in suburban Boston and runs the Foundation for China in the 21st Century, an advocacy group calling for political change in China. His family said he was using a friend's identity card to travel because the Chinese government refused to renew his passport. Last month, members of the U.S. Congress issued a letter addressed to Chinese President Hu Jintao calling Yang's detention "extraordinarily inhumane." China has rejected U.S. protests as an "interference in the judicial process of China." The U.S. Embassy in Beijing had no immediate comment on his conviction. On Thursday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry defended the handling of the case. "The Chinese judicial departments have been trying this case and made a sentence in complete accordance with the law," said ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao. Liu said Yang accepted money from Taiwan for collecting intelligence, used a false identity and tried to obtain state secrets. He said Yang was allowed to meet with his lawyers numerous times and "made a full defense." The charges against Yang apparently stem from four $100 grants to student researchers by a group that he founded in 1992 while attending the University of California-Berkeley, said Jared Genser, a Washington-based lawyer for his family. Chinese prosecutors say the grants by the China Youth Development Foundation were funded by someone in the Taiwanese government, but no evidence was given in court, Genser said. He said the research projects were "innocuous," including one on improving papaya-growing techniques in China. While the prison sentence was "somewhat mild compared to what we were expecting," Genser said China has "so much larger problems to deal with than Yang Jianli." "Yang Jianli has been punished enough," he said. "The time has come for his case to be resolved." The legal deadline for a verdict passed last December with no announcement. Genser contends that that makes Yang's continued detention illegal. Yang's supporters and family have appealed to the U.S. and Chinese legislatures for help in gaining his release, saying Yang has been held in solitary confinement and handcuffed in the State Security Bureau's detention center in Beijing. His wife, Christina Fu, says he has been denied exercise and reading materials. She said his treatment worsened after he started a small protest of his imprisonment in March. Mo, who met with Yang this week, said his client's physical condition appeared "all right." He is out of solitary confinement and now shares a one-room cell with two other inmates, Mo said. He said only Yang's brother has been allowed to visit recently. Wang Bingzhang, another U.S.-based dissident, was sentenced to life in prison last year on charges of spying for Taiwan and plotting a possible bomb attack against China's embassy in Thailand.
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