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, detained since 2022, was active in academic and journalistic circles in the United States and Japan and regularly met with foreign diplomats.
He was having lunch with a Japanese diplomat in Beijing when he was arrested by police.
At the time of his detention, Dong was a senior executive at Guangming Daily, one of the five major newspapers linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
In February 2022, Dong was arrested while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat the day after the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, at a restaurant where he had often met foreign friends.
The diplomat was also arrested, then released hours later amid protests from the Japanese government.
Dong regularly met with other foreign journalists and diplomats as part of his job.
His family said in a statement that, according to a court ruling, two other Japanese diplomats met by Dong were designated as “agents of a spy organization”, namely the Japanese embassy.
“We are shocked that Chinese authorities openly consider a foreign embassy to be a 'spy organization,'” his family's statement said.
“Today's verdict constitutes a grave injustice, not only to Yuyu and his family, but also to all free-thinking Chinese journalists and all ordinary Chinese engaged in friendly engagement with the world,” they said. added.
The Beijing court where Dong was sentenced on Friday had a heavy security presence, Reuters reported, as journalists were asked to leave and a diplomat said they were not allowed to attend. hearing.
“In the past, China's judiciary has chosen Western holidays to release information because it is a time when the public is focused on other matters,” the US National Press Club said in a statement on Tuesday. a statement, before Dong's sentencing on Thanksgiving evening. in the United States.
As Dong's trial concluded in July 2023, he was detained without a verdict and barred from seeing his family, the press club said.
Human rights groups and advocates criticized his conviction and called for his release.
“Chinese authorities must overturn this unjust verdict and protect the right of journalists to work freely and safely in China,” Beh Lih Yi, Asia program manager at the Committee to Protect Journalists, told Reuters.
“Dong Yuyu should reunite with his family immediately.”
Dong joined Guangming Daily after graduating from Peking University Law School in 1987.
In 1989, he was among tens of thousands of students who participated in the Tiananmen Square protests. He was later sentenced to forced labor, but kept his job at the newspaper, according to a statement from his family.
He eventually became deputy head of the editorial department and was among the most pro-reform voices at Guangming Daily, the statement added.
A Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2007, Dong also wrote several articles for the New York Times and was previously a visiting scholar and professor at several Japanese universities.
