China court sentences journalist to seven years on spy charges, family says

Beijing Reuters —

A Beijing court sentenced veteran Chinese state media journalist Dong Yuyu on Friday to seven years in prison for espionage, a family member told Reuters.

Former Guangming Daily editor and journalist Dong Yuyu, 62, was detained by police in Beijing in February 2022 while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat, according to a statement from the US National Press Club, and later charged with espionage.

There was a heavy police presence outside Beijing’s No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court, with at least seven police cars parked nearby. Reuters journalists were asked to leave the area.

A US diplomat told Reuters that they had been barred from attending the hearing.

Dong has been detained in a Beijing prison awaiting the verdict since a closed-court hearing in July 2023, the press club said in September.

He regularly had in-person exchanges with foreign diplomats from various embassies and journalists. The Japanese diplomat he met was also detained for several hours, triggering a strong complaint from the Japanese foreign ministry.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said at the time that the diplomat was engaged in activities “inconsistent with their capacity” in China. The diplomat was later released.

The exterior of Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, where former Chinese journalist Dong Yuyu was sentenced after being detained on espionage charges, on November 29, 2024.

Dong participated in the prestigious Harvard Nieman Fellowship and was a visiting scholar and visiting professor at Keio University and Hokkaido University in Japan, according to a family statement in April 2023.

He joined the Communist Party-affiliated Guangming Daily in 1987 after graduating from Peking University law