Pro-democracy activist out of Chinese prisonStephanie Ebbert Friday, April 27, 2007 Pro-democracy activist Yang Jianli, a Brookline resident who graduated from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, has been released after spending five years in a Chinese prison for allegedly spying, Reporters without Borders announced today. Expelled from China for taking part in the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations, Yang had used a friend's passport when he returned to secretly report on workers' strikes in northeastern China. In April 2002, he was arrested and accused of illegally entering the country and spying for Taiwan. He was sentenced to five years in prison on May 13, 2004, according to the worldwide press freedom organization. His detention had prompted appeals for his release by members of Congress, the State Department, and freedom activists around the world. Harvard University faculty had taken up the cause on behalf of Yang and his wife, Christina Fu, a Harvard Medical School researcher. In 2005, Fu was allowed to visit her husband in prison for the first time and sought medical parole for him after discovering that he had had a stroke. Chinese officials rejected their pleas, saying his sentence was in keeping with Chinese law. It was unclear when he would return to the United States. -------------------------- |