Members of United States Congress will petition the Chinese government to grant parole to Kennedy School of Government graduate and pro-democracy activist Yang Jianli, who has been jailed in China on espionage charges since April 2002. Yang becomes eligible for parole next month.

Representatives Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Christopher Cox, R-Calif., have written a letter to members of the House of Representatives urging them to sign a letter addressed to Chinese President Hu Jintao.

“We believe a decision to grant Yang Jianli parole would not only show a commitment to justice within your country’s legal system, but it would also help strengthen the bilateral ties between our two countries,” the unreleased letter states.

Daniel McGlinchey, a legislative assistant at Frank’s office, said that as of yesterday, 48 House members had signed the letter. McGlinchey said he expects the letter to be signed by at least 69 members of Congress, the same number that signed Congress’ last letter to the Chinese government urging Yang’s release.

The letter will be sent to Hu either at the end of the month or on Oct. 1, McGlinchey said.

In May, Yang was sentenced to five years in prison, including time already served, for spying for Taiwan and illegally crossing into China. Yang refused to appeal his sentence, citing illegal misconduct by China’s judicial system.

Parole becomes a possibility for Yang after he serves half of his prison term, according to the rules of his sentence.

Christina X. Fu, Yang’s wife and a researcher at Harvard Medical School, said she has made almost a hundred phone calls to members of Congress urging them to sign the letter and has enlisted the help of family members, who have been visiting representatives in their offices.

“My hope is that he will be out pretty soon, not long after he is eligible, because that’s just the right thing to do,” she said.

Fu said that Jerome A. Cohen, a law professor at New York University who is currently teaching in China, will be filing a formal parole petition on behalf of the family. Yang becomes eligible for parole Oct. 26.

Yang was arrested April 26, 2002 after entering China with a friend’s passport and traveling for a week on a fake identification card. Yang had been banned from China following his involvement in the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.

Yang’s case has received worldwide attention from human rights groups and has raised concerns among U.S. officials in Washington about China’s human rights record.

Fu, who has not seen her husband since his arrest in 2002, said Yang will be spending the next three months in a “training and education center.”

“They will teach him about respecting authority and complying with the law,” Fu said. “Our lawyer in China said that these three months will be the most difficult time because you can be tortured. It’s pretty inhumane but no one can avoid it.”

Yang was transferred to the new corrections facility Sept. 1.

—Staff writer May Habib can be reached at habib@fas.harvard.edu.