“You see this stuff in the movies. It feels very Hollywood-ish, but it is unnerving,” Dale Buckner, chief executive of Global Guardian, a US private security firm, told The Wall Street Journal.

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The severity of Yang’s sentence − the highest ever handed down to a foreigner for espionage − shocked even the most seasoned observers.

John Kamm, who has worked with prisoners in China for more than three decades, said it was “unheard of”.

Lowy Institute senior fellow Richard McGregor said it displayed on “a wide screen the opacity of the Chinese legal system” and “its vindictiveness to people who challenge it”.

Lawyers condemned the legal system for running the trial behind closed doors, on top of the years of pre-charge detention and restrictions on independent legal advice.

“Dr Yang’s sentence falls far short of international standards,” said Law Council of Australia President, Greg McIntyre SC.

Far from unusual, Yang’s treatment is the norm in a country with an increasingly punitive legal system geared around extracting a confession to maintain a conviction rate of 99 per cent.

Despite the threat of death, Yang has always maintained his innocence over the vague claims of espionage made against him. Human rights groups estimate there are 5000 foreigners in Chinese jails. At least 50 of them are Australian.

The day after Yang’s sentence was handed down, Chinese activist Li Qiaochu was convicted of “subversion of state power” after she shared articles about the torture to which her jailed partner, Xu Zhiyong, was subjected.

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Li will now join Xu and more than 1 million other locals languishing behind bars, after being sentenced to almost four years in prison.

Yang’s suspended death sentence shattered the illusion that foreigners are likely to face a lighter punishment in the Chinese system. Perhaps that is because he did not yield to it.

“I have no fear now. I will never compromise,” he said in a letter to his two sons before his trial in Beijing. “I love you all and I know that I am loved.”