China denies lawyers' access to detained Australian

BEIJING, Feb 03 (Reuters): Two lawyers hired by the wife of an Australian detained in Beijing for suspected espionage said they have been denied access to him by Chinese authorities because the detainee did not agree to their appointment.

Yang Hengjun, a 53-year-old Chinese-born writer, was detained in the southern city of Guangzhou while waiting for a transfer to Shanghai last month. He had flown in from New York.

Yang was taken to Beijing, where China has said the city's State Security Bureau is holding him under "coercive measures", a euphemism for detention, while he is investigated on suspicion of "endangering state security".

One of the lawyers, Mo Shaoping, said the state security bureau informed him on Friday that Yang did not accept lawyers appointed by his family.