UPDATE: A friend of Yang Hengjun’s is suggesting that he’s now free. Where he’s been is unclear, but I expect we’ll hear in detail from Yang himself sooner or later.
The following is a translation of this post from journalist Zhang Wen’s popular blog.
Translation
Yang Hengjun disappeared on March 27, and there has been no news from him since1 According to his blog manager, that night he received a call from Yang saying that three people were following him. After that he never got back in touch.
On March 28, when I saw this news on the net, I was shocked; I truly couldn’t believe my eyes. On the 26th, I had met up with him and had a chat. In the past, I recommended his book “Jiaguo Tianxia”, and he had agreed to give me a signed copy and present it to me when he got to Beijing this trip.
During the meal [on the 26th], Dr. Xu Zhiyong, mentioned lawyer Teng Biao had been taken away [by police], and everyone felt very sad. Only brother [Yang] Hengjun was still smiling and trying to console us. Who could have known that just the next day, it would be his turn to “have an accident.”
Thinking about that now, it’s really hard to focus. After the lunch ended, we all went our separate ways. I went to Houhai to meet up with some family and have a little fun. In the warm afternoon sun and spring breeze, I flipped idly through “Jiaguo Tianxia,” and I was moved again by the warm, loving, sincere, and powerful words.
Honestly, I didn’t understand brother [Yang] Hengjun’s complex background until now; I first learned that he had become an Australian citizen from the BBC News report. But that’s not important to me, I could feel his love for his homeland even years ago, reading his doctoral thesis. His complaints and criticisms aren’t “griping without cause”, they’re not “willfully stirring up trouble”, they’re always very pointedly looking forward to reforms and the end of officials’ malpractice.
What was Brother Hengjun’s crime? At the moment, we do not know, and no one is coming forward to explain it. But I think that if a person disappears, whether they’re a foreigner or they’re Chinese, there should at least be an explanation provided. I’ve heard that Yang Hengjun’s friends and family have filed a report with the police station at the Guangzhou airport, and are asking us all to pay attention to this case.
Note: As the situation is not yet clear, please exercise restraint in your comments. We already enjoy our socialist rule of law, we must trust that our nation’s legal system is a shield to protect its citizens.
If there is time, I may come back to this post later today and add some translated comments from Zhang Wen’s post
- Actually, he called a relative and told her that he was “chatting with old friends,” which she says is a code for “arrested.” [↩]
Geez, this guy is Australian.
Here’s latest uncensored Baidu search on Yang
http://www.baidu.com/s?wd=%D1%EE%BA%E3%BE%F9%20%CA%C7%B2%A1%C1%CB%2C%D2%BB%B3%A1%CE%F3%BB%E1%A1%A3%B9%FD%BC%B8%CC%EC%D4%D9%BD%E2%CA%CD&cl=0
@Pug_ster. Yes, I’m ashamed to say this publicity seeking windbag lives in Hornsby outside Sydney. See my full comment:
http://cmp.hku.hk/2011/03/30/11228/
He should be investigated by the Dept of Foreign Affairs for orchestrating his own arrest in China, deprived of his Oz passport and shipped off to Albania or some place with very inefficient internet.
I first learned that he had become an Australian citizen from the BBC News report. But that’s not important to me, I could feel his love for his homeland even years ago, reading his doctoral thesis.
This guy is what I call an “Australian of convenience”. If you don’t like your former homeland then he should have stayed in Australia and enjoy his new found freedom. But no, he’s acting like those who secured a safe house then turn around provoking those in his former homeland using Australians as a shield in case the situation gets too hot for him to handle. The Australian government should just boot his ass back to China as he doesn’t provide any value to them.
Fortunately, in this case, Australia’s Department of Trade and Foreign Affairs has a particularly poor record of looking after the interests of its passport holders who experience difficulties in China.
Hopefully, they won’t bother improving their record in this instance, since it doesn’t impact on trade relations.
Yang engineered his own arrest, and soon as he saw trouble coming, hit the mobile panic button to his camp followers. The whole thing reeks of orchestration and self publicity oxygen.
He knew full well beforehand that he would be treated with kid gloves during his detention. A bit of minor diplomatic push and shove and back over the Louhu walkway to a “hero’s” reception once aboard Qantas.
I really don’t know why PRCs security apparatus bothered anyway. His verbose criticisms of Beijing are a bit like being gnawed to death by a dead sheep.
Wonder how many other sites take up his cause?
And the passport of convenience point works both ways. Most of the HH crowd should be shipped back to the Mainland without any legal due process.
Either its been an orchestration or its yet another huge PR failure for Beijing. I wouldn’t be surprised if just another blunder since there are so many. If people actually know what they can and can’t say/do they’ll immediately step up to the limits of their freedom. A few semi-random arrests keeps everyone on their toes.
Anyway the whole publicity stunt accusation seems to me to be pretty unfounded. OK, so the timing is vaguely opportune, and the Foreign Ministry doesn’t say anything. People go missing in China all the time, foreigners included, so I’m not seeing any red flags going up here (and I’m pretty sure there won’t be a diplomatic tug over this). I know you guys are gagging to do some trolling, but how about we at least withholding judgement a little.
Here’s an article from Tianya on Yang playing the “missing” game:
http://www.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/free/1/2126494.shtml
I didn’t know he’s still a CCP memeber.
Here’s a tweet from Yang or his assistant:
http://t.qq.com/p/t/37017062246175
杨恒均: 完全是误会啊，我在试用我的手机，发了一跳信息，竟然差一点引起国际纠纷。。。
“Yang: it’s all a misunderstanding, was trying my cell phone, sent a text message, nearly caused an international incident…”
Opps, that was from last year, here’s the latest from Yang’s assistant:
http://t.qq.com/yanghengjun
各位朋友，下午已和杨老师通上电话，他目前还好，身体在恢复中，他托我感谢各位关心他的朋友，并为自己给大家造成的麻烦深表歉意，他很快就能回来了，依然是原来那个充满活力的杨恒均
“friends, talk to Mr. Yang in the afternoon, he’s okay, recovering. He asks to thank his friends, and apologize for the trouble he’s caused. Will be back to his old self soon.”
But from the Nov ’10 text seems there were misunderstanding about his whereabouts before?
More from Yang’s assistant found from Michael Anti’s twitter link Custer cited earlier:
@yanghengjun: 各位朋友，今天下午终于联系到杨老师，他正在恢复中，一场误会，这两天就能上网了。他让代问大家好。感谢大家关心，对造成麻烦表达歉意。
“Friends, finally connected with Mr. Yang this afternoon, he’s recovering, it’s misunderstanding, will be on-line in couple days. He gives his regards, thank everyone for their concern, apologetic about he trouble he caused.”
“……sent a text message, nearly caused an **international incident***…”
A delusional windbag and publicity hound. As if Gillard, Rudd and his neighbours in Hornsby NSW give a rats.
As a result of discussion in the previous post that places me in a position of potential liability, this comment section is now closed. The relevant parties have been informed of their infractions and the reasoning for my actions via email. To the rest of you, I apologize. It upsets me that this would be necessary, but obviously it is.