A distinguished Chinese language journalist was sentenced in a Beijing court docket to seven years in jail for espionage, in line with his household.
Dong Yuyu, a commentator and editor, was detained by police in February 2022 whereas he was assembly a Japanese diplomat at a restaurant, in line with The Related Press, and has been in police custody since.
The decision on Friday named then-Japanese ambassador Hideo Tarumi and Shanghai-based chief diplomat Masaru Okada as brokers belonging to an espionage group, Dong’s household stated.
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Chinese language journalist Dong Yuyu stands on the gates of the Nieman Basis for Journalism at Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass., in Might 2017. (Dong Household by way of AP)
Dong had served because the deputy head of the editorial division at Guangming Each day, a state-owned newspaper in China. He additionally contributed to the Chinese language version of the New York Occasions.
His revealed work consists of his help for constitutional democracy and political reform, which have been later deemed to be in opposition to the place of China’s Communist Social gathering.
Dong had contacts with international diplomats, students and different journalists via his decades-long profession as a journalist. He additionally thought-about Tarumi as a good friend.
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Dong Yuyu, a commentator and editor, was detained by police in February 2022 whereas he was assembly a Japanese diplomat at a restaurant. (iStock)
His household stated he knew he was all the time watched by state safety, so he wished to be as open as potential whereas assembly his Japanese or American contacts.
“With Yuyu’s conviction, every Chinese citizen, when dealing with the Japanese embassy — or perhaps any other foreign embassy and diplomat — will be expected to know that the Chinese government may consider those embassies to be ‘espionage organizations,'” the household stated in an announcement. “Every sensible Chinese citizen should be appalled by this reasoning.”
Dong had contacts with international diplomats, students and different journalists via his decades-long profession as a journalist. (iStock)
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The U.S. Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, criticized Dong’s conviction.
“Punishing Dong for exercising his freedom of speech and the press, guaranteed by the PRC’s constitution for all its citizens, is unjust,” Burns stated.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
