BEIJING: China on Thursday put a Chinese-Australian writer on trial for alleged espionage and denied the Australian ambassador in Beijing access to the hearing.

Yang Hengjun has been held since arriving in China in January 2019 and has had no access to family and only limited contact with his lawyer, the Australian government has said.

Ambassador Graham Fletcher walked to the court complex gate in Beijing and returned after he was denied entry, telling journalists it was “regrettable” that diplomats were prevented from observing the trial.

His government had been told earlier that a representative would not be allowed to attend the trial because it is a national security case.

Fletcher said China has only said that the charge against Yang involves espionage.

“This is deeply regrettable and concerning and unsatisfactory,” Fletcher told reporters.

“We’ve had longstanding concerns about this case, including lack of transparency, and therefore have concluded that it’s an arbitrary detention.”

Authorities have not released any details of the charges against Yang, a novelist who reportedly formerly worked for China’s Ministry of State Security as an intelligence agent.

Reached by phone during a lunchtime break, Yang’s lawyer Mo Shaoping said the trial would likely last the entire day and that the only charge brought was the illegal gathering of information.

Yang has denied the accusations against him, and while a conviction is virtually certain, it wasn’t clear when a verdict would be handed down.

The espionage charge carries a sentence from three years in prison to the death penalty.

In comments believed to have been dictated to diplomats in March and reproduced in Australian media, Yang said the lack of fresh air and sunshine had taken a toll on his health but that spiritually, “I’m still strong.”

“There is nothing more liberating than having one’s worst fears realized,” Yang said.

Fletcher said Australian diplomats last met with Fletcher via video link last month and were able to convey messages to and from his family.

Yang appeared to be in satisfactory health and had access to legal representation, Fletcher said.

Australia would continue to “advocate strongly” for Yang and did not see a link between his case and the overall state of ties with China, Fletcher said.

The trial comes at a time of deteriorating relations between the two countries, brought on by Chinese retaliation against Australia’s legislation against foreign involvement in its domestic politics, the exclusion of telecommunications giant Huawei from its 5G phone network, and calls for an independent investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak that was first detected in China in late 2019.

Beijing has essentially suspended all but the most routine contacts between the sides, while state media and the Foreign Ministry routinely attack Australia as adopting anti-Chinese policies at the behest of the United States, China’s main geopolitical rival.

Australian journalists Michael Smith of the Australian Financial Review and Bill Birtles of the Australian Broadcasting Corp. fled China in September after sheltering in Australian diplomatic compounds following demands for questioning by Chinese authorities.

They were allowed to depart China under a deal brokered between the two governments, leaving Australian media without a physical presence in the country.

Before their departure, Chinese police questioned both journalists about Australian citizen Cheng Lei, a business news anchor for CGNT, China’s English-language state media channel, who had been detained a month earlier.

China says Cheng has been lawfully detained on suspicion of violating Chinese national security laws.

China has blocked Australian exports including beef, wine, coal, lobsters, wood and barley.

However, Australia’s most lucrative export, iron ore, still has eager buyers among Chinese steel manufacturers.

A close family friend, Feng Chongyi, recently described the case against Yang as “fabricated….for political persecution and political purposes and I have never had any illusion for a fair trial.”

“Given Beijing’s determination to punish him and the current bad relations between Australia and China, I am deeply concerned that Yang’s sentence will be harsh,” Feng said.