A Beijing court has sentenced veteran Chinese state media journalist Dong Yuyu to seven years in prison on espionage charges, as reported by his family. Dong Yuyu, a senior columnist at the Communist Party newspaper Guangming Daily, was detained in February 2022 along with a Japanese diplomat at a Beijing restaurant. While the diplomat was released after a few hours of questioning, Dong, 62, has remained in custody and was charged with spying last year.
According to a statement shared with AFP by his family, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court convicted Yuyu of espionage, a crime that requires proof that the defendant knowingly acted on behalf of ‘espionage organisations’ and their agents. The judgement also named the Japanese diplomats Dong met with, including then-ambassador Hideo Tarumi and current Shanghai-based chief diplomat Masaru Okada, as agents of an “espionage organisation”.
The family expressed shock at the Chinese authorities’ decision to label a foreign embassy as an ‘espionage organisation’ and accuse the former Japanese ambassador and his fellow diplomats of being spies. Under Chinese law, those convicted of espionage can face sentences ranging from three to 10 years for less severe cases, or even heavy punishment such as life imprisonment for serious cases.
Dong Yuyu’s work has been published in the Chinese editions of The New York Times and the Financial Times. He was awarded the prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 2006-2007 and served as a visiting fellow at Keio University in Japan in 2010, as well as a visiting professor at Hokkaido University in 2014.
The case of Dong Yuyu is another example of the shrinking civil liberties and freedom of expression in China under President Xi Jinping’s leadership. The Communist Party maintains strict control over domestic media outlets, and Chinese nationals working with foreign media often face harassment. China currently leads the world in the number of jailed media workers, with 44 journalists behind bars as of December last year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In a similar incident in February, a Beijing court handed a suspended death sentence to jailed dissident writer Yang Hengjun on espionage charges. Yang, a dual Chinese-Australian citizen, was found guilty of espionage. The situation highlights the challenges faced by journalists and writers in China, where freedom of expression is increasingly under threat.
