Chinese Court Sentences Journalist to 7 Years in Prison for Espionage

A Chinese court sentenced a high-ranking editor and columnist for a major Communist Party newspaper to seven years in prison on espionage charges on Friday. His family said it was punishment for past writings that were critical of the government, as well as a warning to Chinese citizens against engaging with foreigners.

The journalist, Dong Yuyu, 62, was arrested in Beijing in 2022 while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat, who was also briefly detained.

As part of his job, Mr. Dong had met regularly with foreign diplomats and journalists. He was also a prolific writer, often expressing support for the rule of law and constitutional democracy, ideas that the ruling Communist Party says it supports but in reality has suppressed. Some of his writing criticized the party’s selective version of Chinese history, which downplays its role in dark periods like the Cultural Revolution.

Such critiques were once common among Chinese intellectuals. But since China’s current leader, Xi Jinping, took power in 2012, the party has eliminated virtually all space for dissenting views and urged citizens to be suspicious of foreign influence, in the name of national security.

Purported foreign espionage has become a particular fixation for the government. Last year, China broadened its already expansive definition of espionage, and the state security agency called for a “whole-of-society mobilization” against spies.

Members of Mr. Dong’s family released a statement on Friday calling his conviction and sentence a “grave injustice,” not only to Mr. Dong but “to every freethinking Chinese journalist and every ordinary Chinese committed to friendly engagement with the world.”