China jails journalist who met with Japanese diplomats: family

U.S. called for the immediate release of veteran Chinese state media journalist Dong Yuyu

A Beijing court on Friday (November 29, 2024) sentenced veteran Chinese state media journalist Dong Yuyu to seven years in prison on espionage charges, his family said.

Mr. Dong, a senior columnist at the Communist Party newspaper Guangming Daily, was detained in February 2022 along with a Japanese diplomat at a Beijing restaurant.

The diplomat was released after a few hours of questioning, but Dong, 62, was charged with spying last year.

Meanwhile, the U.S. called for the immediate release of veteran Chinese state media journalist Dong Yuyu. “We stand by Dong and his family and call for his immediate and unconditional release,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

"The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court convicted Yuyu of espionage, a crime that requires that the prosecution prove that the defendant knowingly acted on behalf of 'espionage organisations' and their agents," according to a statement shared by his family with AFP.

According to the judgement, the Japanese diplomats Dong met with, including then-ambassador Hideo Tarumi and current Shanghai-based chief diplomat Masaru Okada, were named as agents of an "espionage organisation", the family statement added.

"We are shocked that the Chinese authorities would blatantly deem a foreign embassy as an 'espionage organisation' and accuse the former Japanese ambassador and his fellow diplomats of being spies," Dong's family said.

On Friday, Beijing's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning responded to Dong's case by saying "China is a country ruled by law".

The Japanese embassy told AFP that it would not comment directly on the case.

But an embassy spokesperson told AFP in an email: "The diplomatic activities of Japanese diplomatic missions abroad are carried out in a legitimate manner."

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the "unjust verdict" and called for Mr. Dong's immediate release.

"Interacting with diplomats is part of a journalist's job," the NGO's Asia program coordinator Beh Lih Yi said in an email to AFP.

"This sentencing cements China's position as the world's leading jailer of journalists," added Yi.

Under Chinese law, a person convicted of espionage can be jailed for three to 10 years for less severe cases or receive heavy punishment, including life imprisonment, for serious cases.

Dong's work has been published in the Chinese editions of The New York Times and the Financial Times.

He won the prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 2006-2007. He was also a visiting fellow at Keio University in Japan in 2010 and a visiting professor at Hokkaido University in 2014.

(With inputs from Reuters and AFP)

Published - November 30, 2024 02:20 am IST