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A former Chinese state media journalist was sentenced to seven years in prison on Friday for espionage, his family confirmed to the BBC.
Dong Yuyu, 62, has been arrested since 2022. He was prominent in intellectual and press circles in the United States and Japan, as well as meeting with foreign diplomats on a regular basis.
He was having lunch with a Japanese official in Beijing when he was detained by authorities.
Dong was a senior staff member of the Guangming Daily, one of China’s five major newspapers affiliated with the Communist Party, at the time of his imprisonment.
A former Chinese official media journalist was sentenced to seven years in prison for espionage on Friday, his family told the BBC.
Dong Yuyu, 62, who has been detained since 2022, was engaged in intellectual and press circles in the United States and Japan, as well as meeting with foreign diplomats on a regular basis.
He was eating lunch with a Japanese official in Beijing when he was seized by police.
Dong was a senior staff member of the Guangming Daily, one of the Chinese Communist Party’s five major publications, at the time of his imprisonment.
Dong was arrested in February 2022 while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat in Beijing the day after the Winter Olympics finished, at a restaurant where he frequently met international acquaintances.
The diplomat was also detained, but was freed several hours later after objections from the Japanese government.
Dong’s profession required him to regularly meet with other journalists and foreign diplomats.
His family said in a statement that two other Japanese diplomats Dong interacted with were listed as “agents of an espionage organization,” which is the Japanese embassy, according to a court ruling.
“We are shocked that the Chinese authorities would openly label a foreign embassy as a ‘espionage organization’,” said his family’s statement.
“Today’s verdict is a severe injustice, not only to Yuyu and his family, but also to every freethinking Chinese journalist and ordinary Chinese who is committed to peaceful relations with the rest of the world,” they added.
According to Reuters, the Beijing court where Dong was convicted on Friday was well guarded, with journalists being ordered to leave and a diplomat stating that they were not permitted to attend the session.
“In the past, the Chinese court system has selected Western holidays to release news because it is a time when the public is focused on other matters,” the US National Press Club said in a statement on Tuesday, ahead of Dong’s sentencing on Thanksgiving night in the United States.
Dong’s trial had been completed in July 2023, but he was imprisoned without a verdict and forbidden from seeing his family , According to the press club, he has a family.
Human rights organizations and advocates have criticized his conviction and urged for his release.
“Chinese authorities must reverse this unjust verdict and protect journalists’ right to work freely and safely in China,” Beh Lih Yi, Asia program manager at the Committee to defend Journalists, told Reuters.
“Dong Yuyu should be reunited with his family immediately.”
Dong started working at the Guangming Daily after graduating from Peking University’s law school in 1987.
He was among the tens of thousands of students who took part in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. According to a family statement, he was eventually sentenced to hard labor but continued to work for the newspaper.
He subsequently climbed to become deputy chairman of the editorial department and was regarded as one of Guangming Daily’s most pro-reform voices, according to the statement.
Dong, a Nieman scholar at Harvard University in 2007, has also published several articles for the New York Times and served as a visiting fellow and professor at various Japanese colleges
