Secret trial

last updated 8 January 2015

Beijing

A Chinese dissident who is a permanent U.S. resident was tried for espionage in Beijing this week. Yang Jianli fled to the U.S. after participating in the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations. He earned doctorates from Harvard and UC Berkeley, and his wife and children are American citizens. Last year, he was arrested after he returned to China using a friend’s passport to assist demonstrating workers. “It was a last-minute decision,” his wife, Christina Fu, said. “He really wanted to be in China to help the workers ask for fairness.” U.S. officials were not allowed to attend the closed trial, which ended without a verdict being announced. Earlier this year, another U.S.-based dissident, Wang Bingzhang, was sentenced to life in prison on similar charges.