In a shocking turn of events, senior journalist Dong Yuyu from the state-run Guangming Daily has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage charges by a Beijing court. This verdict has ignited outrage among press freedom advocates and raised serious concerns about China’s treatment of journalists who engage with foreign entities. The 62-year-old journalist was detained in February 2022 after having dinner with a Japanese diplomat at a Beijing hotel. While the diplomat was released shortly after, Dong remained in custody, facing allegations of sharing sensitive information.
The sentence, which was delivered on Friday, followed a secret trial that is typical of cases labeled as threats to national security. Dong’s family, who firmly believe in his innocence, have expressed their disappointment with the lack of transparency surrounding the proceedings. In a statement, they stated that “Yuyu is being persecuted for the independence he has demonstrated during a lifetime spent as a journalist.” They further revealed that both the press and family members were barred from attending the closed-door court proceedings, with no evidence or records made public.
Dong’s case has garnered widespread condemnation from human rights organizations and international observers alike. Beh Lih Yi, Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, called jailing journalists on trumped-up charges like espionage “a travesty of justice.” The organization highlighted that China currently leads the world in imprisoning journalists, with 44 media workers behind bars as of December 2023.
The accusations leading to Dong’s sentencing revolve around alleged inappropriate exchanges with Japanese diplomats, including Hideo Tarumi, Japan’s former ambassador to China. Dong’s family expressed shock at the court classifying diplomatic meetings as acts of espionage. They stated that they were “shocked that the Chinese authorities would blatantly deem a foreign embassy as an ‘espionage organization’ and accuse the former Japanese ambassador and his fellow diplomats of being spies.”
Dong’s background reveals a career dedicated to bridging China with the international community. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2006-07 and later served as a visiting fellow at Japan’s Keio University and as a professor at Hokkaido University. His writings, often published in The New York Times and Financial Times’ Chinese editions, explored ways to improve governance within the Communist Party without overtly opposing its authority. In recognition of his contributions, Dong received a state journalism award in 2002 for his commentary on the Party’s achievements.
While China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains that the trial was conducted lawfully, critics argue that this conviction represents an escalation of President Xi Jinping’s decade-long crackdown on civil liberties and foreign interactions. Ian Johnson, a writer and friend of Dong, stated that “the government is trying to send a message that normal contacts with the outside world are undesirable.” Concerns have been raised about the lack of concrete evidence presented during the trial, suggesting that mere diplomatic engagements were deemed suspicious.
This case emerges amidst a broader trend of targeting journalists and intellectuals in China. Earlier this year, Beijing sentenced Chinese-Australian dissident writer Yang Hengjun to a suspended death sentence on similar charges. These actions underscore the erosion of press freedom under President Xi’s administration, which has tightened control over domestic media and discouraged international cooperation.
Dong’s plight serves as a stark reminder of the risks associated with fostering cross-border dialogues in an increasingly insular China. The National Press Club in Washington referred to him as “the epitome of the kind of people-to-people exchanges that China has been working so hard to establish and maintain for the past 30 years,” while also noting that “that era is now over.”
Various human rights advocates are demanding Dong’s immediate release. Beh Lih Yi emphasized that “interacting with diplomats is part of a journalist’s job” and called for Dong Yuyu to be reunited with his family without delay.
While the Japanese embassy in Beijing declined to comment directly on Dong’s case, they defended the legitimacy of their diplomatic activities, stating that “the diplomatic activities of Japanese diplomatic missions abroad are carried out in a legitimate manner.”