A Beijing court yesterday sentenced veteran Chinese state media journalist Dong Yuyu (董鬱玉) to seven years in prison for espionage, his family said in a statement, calling the verdict a grave injustice.
Police in the Chinese capital detained the 62-year-old former Guangming Daily editor and journalist in February 2022 while he was lunching with a Japanese diplomat, the US National Press Club said in a statement. He was later charged with espionage.
“Sentencing Yuyu to seven years in prison on no evidence declares to the world the bankruptcy of the justice system in China,” Dong’s family said in a statement provided to Reuters. “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.”
Photo: Reuters
The family added that in the court judgement, Japanese diplomats whom Dong met were “specifically named as agents of an ‘espionage organization,’ which is the Japanese embassy in Beijing.”
Dong’s conviction implied every Chinese citizen would be “expected to know that the Chinese government may consider those embassies to be ‘espionage organizations,’” it said, causing a chilling effect.
Police guarded the court yesterday, with seven police cars parked nearby, and journalists were asked to leave the area. A US diplomat said they had been barred from attending the hearing.
Dong has been detained in a Beijing prison since a closed-court hearing in July last year, the press club said in September.
“Chinese authorities must reverse this unjust verdict, and protect the right of journalists to work freely and safely in China,” said Beh Lih Yi (馬麗怡), Asia program manager at the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Dong Yuyu should be reunited with his family immediately.”
Dong regularly had in-person exchanges with diplomats from various embassies and journalists.
The Japanese diplomat he met, one of two he had regularly met in the past, was also detained for several hours, spurring a complaint from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
At the time, a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said the diplomat was engaged in activities “inconsistent with their capacity” in China. The diplomat was later released.
A Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2007, Dong was a visiting professor at Keio University and Hokkaido University in Japan.
He joined the Guangming Daily affiliated to the Chinese Communist Party, in 1987, after graduating from Peking University law school, and was the deputy editor of its commentary section.
He wrote opinion articles in Chinese media and liberal academic journals on topics from legal reforms to social issues, and coedited a book promoting the rule of law in China.
His articles advocated moderate reforms while avoiding direct criticism of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
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