A former Chinese state media journalist has been sentenced on Friday to seven years in prison for espionage, his family has confirmed.
Dong Yuyu, 62, who has been detained since 2022, was active in academic and journalism circles in the US and Japan and met regularly 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 had been a senior staff member of the 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 Winter Olympics ended in Beijing, at a restaurant where he had often met foreign friends.
The diplomat was also detained – then released several hours later amid protests from the Japanese government.
Dong met regularly with other journalists and foreign diplomats as part of his job.
His family said in a statement that according to a court judgment, two other Japanese diplomats Dong met with were named as “agents of an espionage organization”, which is the Japanese embassy.
“We are shocked that the Chinese authorities would blatantly deem a foreign embassy an ‘espionage organization'”, said his family’s statement.
“Today’s verdict is a grave injustice not only to Yuyu and his family but also to every freethinking Chinese journalist and every ordinary Chinese committed to friendly engagement with the world,” they added.
The Beijing court where Dong was sentenced on Friday had a strong security presence, Reuters reported, as journalists were asked to leave and a diplomat said they were not allowed to attend the hearing.
