China sentences journalist Dong Yuyu to 7 years in prison for espionage [Video]

A prominent Chinese journalist was sentenced in a Beijing court to seven years in prison for espionage, according to his family.

Dong Yuyu, a commentator and editor, was detained by police in February 2022 while he was meeting a Japanese diplomat at a restaurant, according to The Associated Press, and has been in police custody since.

The verdict on Friday named then-Japanese ambassador Hideo Tarumi and Shanghai-based chief diplomat Masaru Okada as agents belonging to an espionage organization, Dong’s family said.

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Dong had served as the deputy head of the editorial department at Guangming Daily, a state-owned newspaper in China. He also contributed to the Chinese edition of the New York Times.

His published work includes his support for constitutional democracy and political reform, which were later deemed to be against the position of China’s Communist Party.

Dong had contacts with foreign diplomats, scholars and other journaliststhrough his decades-long career as a journalist. …