China Is Aiming to ‘Break’ Detained Australian Writer, Lawyers Say

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 64%. (I'm a bot)

Dec. 1, 2019, 8:03 a.m. ET.SYDNEY, Australia - Chinese officials have cut off all contact between a detained Australian writer and democracy activist, Yang Hengjun, and his family, in what his lawyers described on Sunday as an effort to "Break" Mr. Yang and force him to confess to being a spy.

Mr. Yang's lawyers said they had confirmed that Chinese officials were conducting daily interrogations of him in isolation, shackling his ankles and wrists, refusing to allow access to any messages of support from relatives or friends and giving him at least nine pills a day for supposed health problems like high blood pressure and kidney complications.

Mr. Yang's case has already complicated relations between Australia and China, but the latest accusations added yet another obstacle to easing any tensions.

It is not clear if the attention to Beijing's covert efforts in Australia - which Chinese officials have denied as pure hysteria - have affected Mr. Yang's treatment.

In August, Mr. Yang said that one of his Chinese interrogators had told him that Australia was small and would not care about him because he is not white and because the country was dependent on China for its trade and economy.

Mr. Yang is one of many writers and activists who over the years have run afoul of the Chinese authorities and disappeared into detention.

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