SYDNEY – In November 2023, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a landmark trip to China, marking an apparent end to a recent era of dismal ties between the two countries. But the elation was short-lived. On Feb 5, 2024, it emerged that a court in Beijing had delivered a suspended death sentence to Yang Hengjun, a Chinese-Australian pro-democracy writer and former Chinese official, on espionage charges.

Yang’s case had been closely watched in Australia, which saw his fate as one of the last significant obstacles to a further improvement in relations. Hopes for Yang’s prospects had been raised in 2023 by the release from a Chinese prison of Chinese-Australian journalist Cheng Lei, whose joyous return to her family in Australia made news across the country.