Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on November 1 he will raise the plight of a detained democracy blogger with Chinese leaders during a state visit to China.

Mr. Albanese said he had approved a draft letter to the sons of Yang Hengjun, who has been detained in China since 2019.

“We’re very sympathetic and understand the concerns that they would have for their father and for this Australian who has been detained now for a long period of time,” Mr. Albanese told reporters.

The sons have made public a letter to Mr. Albanese, dated October 28, that said there was a “narrow window of opportunity” before Mr. Albanese left for China to secure their father’s freedom.

“We ask that you make it clear that it is not possible to stabilise the bilateral relationship with a government that is holding an Australian citizen just a few kilometres south of where you will be hosted,” the brothers added, referring to Beijing.

They said they had just last week received the first letter Yang had been allowed to send from detention. Yang wrote: “I’m sick, I’m weak, I’m dying.” Yang, who once worked for China’s Ministry of State Security, is still awaiting a verdict from his closed-door trial on espionage charges in May 2021.

His sons are 24 and 31 years old. Family friend Feng Chongyi said the sons had not been publicly identified because they feared Chinese retaliation for their father’s activities. Feng said Mr. Albanese becoming the first Australian Prime Minister in seven years to visit China created an opportunity for Yang.

“It’s not the last chance, but it’s the best chance,” Feng said. “The visit symbolises the complete normalisation of relations between the two countries.” Mr. Albanese’s visit that begins on Saturday is a sign that bilateral relations have improved since his centre-left government was elected last year following nine years of conservative rule.

Mr. Albanese will meet with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing and attend the China International Import Expo in Shanghai during the three-day visit.

Mr. Albanese raised the plights of Yang and another detained Australian, journalist Cheng Lei, in his first meeting with Xi on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Indonesia a year ago. Cheng was deported last month in what many saw as Beijing clearing the way for Mr. Albanese’s visit.

Yang’s sons wrote that said they had been “inspired by the wonderful news” of Cheng’s release. They hoped Australian authorities could “achieve a second miracle by saving our father”. Asked about Cheng’s case, Mr. Albanese told reporters: “Every case is … different.”

A man reads a newspaper with an obituary of late former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on a bulletin board in Beijing, China October 28, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

China will cremate the remains of former Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday, when flags will fly at half mast across the country in mourning for an “outstanding” leader, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Li, a former economist and pro-reform leader who served as the premier for 10 years before retiring in March, died of a heart attack on Friday.

His remains were transferred to Beijing from Shanghai aboard a special flight on that day, Xinhua reported.

“He was extolled as an excellent CPC member, a time-tested and loyal communist soldier and an outstanding proletarian revolutionist, statesman and leader of the Party and the state,” Xinhua said on Tuesday, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.

On the day of the cremation, national flags will fly at half-mast to mourn Li at the capital’s Tiananmen Square, the Great Hall of the People, the foreign ministry as well as seats of local governments across the country, and diplomatic missions, Xinhua said.

Li’s death was a huge loss to the Communist Party and the nation, according to an official obituary posted by Xinhua last week.

But Li, once viewed as a Communist Party leadership contender, was sidelined in recent years, analysts and diplomats said, as President Xi Jinping tightened his grip on economic policymaking.