Letter to President Bush from Jianli's Churchyangjianli.com August 5, 2003
George W. Bush Dear Mr. President: I am writing to express my grave concern about the detention in China of Dr. Yang Jianli. Dr. Yang is an internationally renowned scholar and a long-time United States permanent resident who makes his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. In addition to his wife, his two young children who are all American Citizens, Dr. Yang’s elderly parents and two sisters also live here in the U.S. He is the founder and president of the Foundation for China in the 21st Century, which seeks to promote democratic practices in that country. Both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives have recently passed resolutions that condemn and deplore the lengthy incommunicado detention of Dr.Yang Jianli and the lack of due process afforded to him. He has been held in China since April, 2002. Both the Senate and the House have unanimously called for his immediate and unconditional release by the Chinese government. This week, Dr. Yang was put on trial in Beijing on criminal charges of illegal return to China and spying for Taiwan. No member of the public, the press or even Dr. Yang's family, friends, or foreign legal advisers were permitted to attend the trial. The U.S. Embassy and the United Nations were also denied having an observer attend the proceeding – this despite the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention having recently determined that Dr. Yang's confinement violates minimum international human-rights standards. Dr. Yang has been barred from China since 1989, when he traveled to Beijing to take money to the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protesters who were attacked by China's military on June 4, 1989. He returned last year using a friend’s passport to investigate reports of ongoing labor unrest. Dr. Yang’s attorney, Mo Shaoping, who has been unsuccessfully trying to assist him for more than 14 months, was finally allowed to see him only recently - after the secret police finished their investigation and sent the case to the prosecutor's office. Up to that point, the police kept him incarcerated until they added an espionage charge, which not only enabled them to start the clock again on the time limit for Dr. Yang's detention, but also gave them something of an excuse for denying Dr. Yang access to legal counsel until they exhausted their investigation -- the case now is said to involve "state secrets." By indicting Dr. Yang for espionage, it transformed a relatively insignificant illegal border-crossing case, for which the maximum penalty of one year in custody has already been served by Dr. Yang, into something of a major political case for which there is the possibility of a death sentence. While no verdict was issued when the court adjourned several days ago, one is expected in another six weeks. I, and other supporters of Dr. Yang, would very much like to foster an increasingly positive relationship between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China, but Dr. Yang’s detention is getting in the way. And, it is interfering with China’s own efforts to be respected as an important world power. The evidence, so far as the defense is allowed to know it before trial, consists overwhelmingly of the statements extracted from Dr. Yang during his very lengthy incommunicado detention. As often happens in such cases, these statements are characterized as the "confession" of the accused, although Dr. Yang has vigorously expressed his determination to challenge the charges in the three brief meetings he has recently been allowed with his attorney. The accuracy of the statements made by Dr. Yang during more than a year of incarceration must, of course, be open to question. His family and colleagues would be in a good position to assist defense counsel in evaluating the defendant's statements. But, because the case supposedly involves "state secrets," the lawyer, Mr. Mo, has been instructed not to discuss any of the evidence even with Dr. Yang’s family members who retained him. Any failure by Mr. Mo to comply with those instructions could easily lead to his own prosecution for "leaking state secrets," as reports indicate has happened to other Chinese lawyers. Dr. Yang feels strongly about resisting even the lesser charge that he committed illegal entry by using a friend's passport to return to China. Presumably he will argue that, contrary to international law, the Chinese government arbitrarily denied him the right of every citizen to return to his homeland, giving him no reasonable alternative in order to avoid prolonged exile. Chinese criminal prosecutions against political dissidents offer little opportunity to resist the charges such as these. Even in nonpolitical criminal cases, witnesses are rarely brought into court despite the right to cross-examine witnesses which was part of the 1996 criminal procedure reforms. That right is infrequently upheld. Dr. Yang (along with his family) is a member of All Saints Episcopal Church, in Brookline, Massachusetts where the clergy and parishioners are all very concerned about his situation and have followed his wife Christina’s tireless example to draw widespread attention, including significant media coverage, to his case locally, in Washington, and throughout this country and the world. I respectfully urge you to take whatever action you can to assist in facilitating Dr. Yang’s immediate and unconditional release. Thank you for your attention to this very urgent matter. Sincerely,
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