China frees dissident held on spying charges

BEIJING — A Boston-based Chinese democracy activist has been freed after serving five years in a Beijing prison on charges of illegally entering the country and spying for Taiwan, his brother and lawyer said Saturday.

It was unclear whether China would issue Yang Jianli, 44, a passport and allow him to return to the United States, where his wife and children live.

Yang, a permanent U.S. resident, entered China in 2002 on a friend’s passport. He had lived in exile in Boston because of his involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

His brother, speaking by telephone, said Yang was healthy and hoped to sweep his father’s tomb in their home province. Their father died in 2005 at age 92 after returning to China to plead for his son’s freedom.

Lawyer Mo Shaoping said Yang “cannot speak to the press because he has been deprived of his political rights for one year.”

Authorities had offered to release Yang on parole and deport him to the U.S. last year, but he refused, insisting that he be allowed to pay respects to his father, the brother said.