Mother points the finger as son fears death in a Chinese jail Hunger strike threat ... Li Wang says the Government has not done enough for her son, Wang Jianping, whom the Chinese accuse of spying. Photo: Pat Scala
By Craig Skehan, Foreign Affairs Correspondent Li Wang is 75, but determined. Her son, an Australian citizen, is in a Beijing jail accused of spying, and she was ready to go on a hunger strike if the Federal Government did not do more to help free him. Now, however, she has agreed to postpone her planned protest after the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, pledged to press his visiting Chinese counterpart over the case of Wang Jianping when they meet in Canberra tomorrow. Mr Downer promised Mr Wang's ailing mother, who now lives alone in Canberra, that he would pursue the case in talks with Tang Jiaxuan, the first Chinese foreign minister to visit Australia in a decade. A solicitor for the family, Chanaka Bandarage, said yesterday: "Mr Downer has been pretty slack. We are glad that he has now agreed to talk directly to Mr Tang. But Mr Downer must work for Mr Wang's urgent release as well as consular access." Mr Wang, 52, who is in poor health, has written to Mr Downer saying he fears dying in jail. He was accused of passing state secrets to Australian diplomat Murray McLean in the early 1980s and was sentenced to 10 years' jail. He escaped in 1986 and the Australian Government allowed him to settle here. Mr Wang was re-arrested during a business trip to China in 1995 and was sentenced to an additional term for the escape. The Wang family insists he entered China as an Australian citizen and that the Australian Government should be pressing more forcefully for consular access, better prison conditions and his prompt release. Amnesty International says long periods of solitary confinement and poor food have contributed to Mr Wang's poor health and has demanded that Mr Downer give a public account of his dealings with China. "Amnesty has been concerned that for quite a while the human rights dialogue between Australia and China has been occurring too much behind closed doors," a spokesman, Damien Spry, said yesterday. From http://smh.com.au/news/0203/18/world/world12.html
