Hostage diplomacy is an apt name for the exquisite predicament in which Australia finds itself. An Australian citizen, Yang Hengjun, is held arbitrarily and then, in a shocking decision, sentenced to death. But with the diabolical twist that the sentence is suspended for two years dependent on good behaviour.
Whose good behaviour? Not Yang’s but ours – Australia’s. With Yang as a hostage, Australia is being blackmailed into submission and silence.
China’s courts have given a death sentence to Australian Yang Hengjun, putting Foreign Minister Penny Wong in an invidious position.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Beijing is masterful at planting self-doubt in the........