Detainee Threatens Hunger Strike

Former Kennedy School of Government (KSG) student and pro-democracy activist Yang Jianli, imprisoned in China on espionage charges since April 2002, has decided to delay a hunger strike he intended to start last Wednesday.

Yang changed his mind after hearing that his wife, Harvard Medical School researcher Christina X. Fu, objected to the strike.

“I told [his lawyer] to talk to him and ask him to reconsider,” Fu said Saturday. “I really don’t want him to put himself in danger. He’s already been through so much suffering.”

Yang, who stood trial in August, had intended to go on a hunger strike to protest his delayed verdict, which was due Dec. 1 of last year.

China has laws against delaying the announcement of a verdict, but Fu said Chinese officials who met with Yang last week told him that they could not do anything about the delay.

“They said that his case was too sensitive and too special to be subject to these rules,” Fu said.

Mo Shaoping, Yang’s lawyer, said yesterday that Yang may begin his hunger strike next week unless he is given a reason why his verdict has been delayed.

“There’s a chance that he will still go on a hunger strike,” said Mo. “This is his only way of retaliation.”

Mo also said that Yang appeared to be in good health.

When officials at the detention center where Yang was being held told him that his wife objected to his strike, Yang initially believed that it was a ploy to prevent him from striking, Fu said.

“He thought they were fooling him,” she said.

On Tuesday night, Fu faxed a hand-written letter to Mo, who showed Yang the letter the next afternoon.

“It was a very hard decision to make because I don’t want him to feel like he doesn’t have support,” she said. “But we want him to come home healthy.”

Fu has not seen or spoken to her husband since his arrest almost two years ago on charges of spying for Taiwan.

Yang, a native of China, had returned to China with a borrowed passport to meet with other pro-democracy activists.

Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers discussed Yang’s case with Chinese officials when he visited China in 2002.

Last December, more than 100 Harvard faculty members signed two letters calling for Yang’s release. The letters were addressed to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who was speaking at the Business School that week.

A Harvard official has said that the University again raised concerns about the case with Chinese officials in the days leading up to Wen’s visit.

Summers’ spokesperson Lucie McNeil said yesterday that she is not aware of any further action taken by the University regarding Yang’s detainment.

—Staff writer May Habib can be reached at habib@fas.harvard.edu.