China has sentenced a 78-year-old US citizen to life in prison for espionage, a court said yesterday, but revealed few details about the case that had previously gone unreported.
Such heavy terms are relatively rare for foreign citizens in China, and the jailing of US passport holder John Shing-wan Leung (梁成運) is likely to further strain already damaged ties between Beijing and Washington.
Leung, who is a Hong Kong permanent resident, “was found guilty of espionage, sentenced to life imprisonment, deprived of political rights for life,” the Suzhou Intermediate People’s Court said in a statement.
Photo: AFP
Authorities in Suzhou, a city in eastern China, “took compulsory measures according to the law” against Leung in April 2021, it said, without specifying when he had been taken into custody.
It was unclear where Leung had been living at the time of his arrest.
A spokesperson for the US embassy in Beijing said they were aware of reports that a US citizen had been convicted and sentenced in Suzhou.
“The [US] Department of State has no greater priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas,” the spokesperson said. “Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.”
The court statement provided no further details on the charges, and closed door trials are routine in China for sensitive cases.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) declined to comment further on the case at a news conference yesterday.
The jailing is likely to damage relations with Washington, which are already severely strained over issues such as trade, human rights and Taiwan.
Washington and Beijing have ended an unofficial pause in high-level contacts over the US’ shooting down in February of a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon.
In an apparent breakthrough last week, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Chinese Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Wang Yi (王毅) held eight hours of talks in Vienna, with both sides describing the meeting as “candid, substantive and constructive.”
On Friday, Washington issued a statement condemning the reported sentencing of a human rights activist for “inciting subversion of state power.”
Guo Feixiong (郭飛雄), also known as Yang Maodong (楊茂東), was jailed for eight years, according to rights groups. There has been no official confirmation from China of the sentencing.
In its statement, the US Department of State said its diplomats had been barred from attending the trial in southern China.
“We urge the PRC to live up to its international commitments, give its citizens due process, respect their human rights and fundamental freedoms including freedom of speech, and end the use of arbitrary detentions and exit bans,” US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
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