A former Chinese language state media journalist has been sentenced on Friday to seven years in jail for espionage, his household has confirmed to the BBC.
Dong Yuyu, 62, who has been detained since 2022, was lively in tutorial and journalism circles within the US and Japan and met usually with international diplomats.
He was having lunch with a Japanese diplomat in Beijing when he was arrested by police.
On the time of his detention, Dong had been a senior employees member of the Guangming Every day, one of many 5 main newspapers linked to the Chinese language Communist Occasion.
In February 2022, Dong was arrested whereas having lunch with a Japanese diplomat the day after the Winter Olympics led to Beijing, at a restaurant the place he had typically met international mates.
The diplomat was additionally detained – then launched a number of hours later amid protests from the Japanese authorities.
Dong met usually with different journalists and international diplomats as a part of his job.
His household stated in an announcement that based on a court docket judgement, two different Japanese diplomats Dong met with had been named as “brokers of an espionage organisation”, which is the Japanese embassy.
“We’re shocked that the Chinese language authorities would blatantly deem a international embassy an ‘espionage group'”, stated his household’s assertion.
“At present’s verdict is a grave injustice not solely to Yuyu and his household but in addition to each freethinking Chinese language journalist and each unusual Chinese language dedicated to pleasant engagement with the world,” they added.
The Beijing court docket the place Dong was sentenced on Friday had a robust safety presence, Reuters reported, as journalists had been requested to go away and a diplomat stated they weren’t allowed to attend the listening to.
“Up to now, the Chinese language court docket system has chosen Western holidays to launch information as it’s a time when the general public is targeted on different issues,” the US Nationwide Press Membership stated in an announcement on Tuesday, forward of Dong’s sentencing on Thanksgiving evening within the US.
Whereas Dong’s trial had been accomplished in July 2023, he was held with no verdict and barred from seeing his household, the press membership stated.
Rights teams and advocates have criticised his conviction and known as for him to be launched.
“Chinese language authorities should reverse this unjust verdict, and shield the precise of journalists to work freely and safely in China,” Beh Lih Yi, Asia program supervisor on the Committe to Defend Journalists advised Reuters.
“Dong Yuyu ought to be reunited together with his household instantly.”
Dong joined the Guangming Every day after graduating from Peking College’s legislation faculty in 1987.
In 1989, he was one in every of tens of hundreds of scholars who participated within the Tiananmen Sq. protests. He was later sentenced to onerous labour, however stored his job on the newspaper, based on a household assertion.
He ultimately rose to turn out to be deputy head of the editorial division, and was among the many most pro-reform voices at Guangming Every day, the assertion added.
A Nieman fellow at Harvard College in 2007, Dong had additionally written a number of articles for the New York Occasions and was beforehand a visiting fellow and professor at a number of Japanese universities.