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A veteran Chinese state media journalist has been sentenced to seven years in prison for espionage, a verdict his family describes as a "grave injustice".
Police in Beijing detained 62-year-old former Guangming Daily editor and journalist Dong Yuyu in February 2022 while he was lunching with a Japanese diplomat. He was later charged with espionage.
"Sentencing Yuyu to seven years in prison on no evidence declares to the world the bankruptcy of the justice system in China," Dong's family said in a statement provided to Reuters.
"Today's verdict is a grave injustice not only to Yuyu and his family but also to every freethinking Chinese journalist and every ordinary Chinese committed to friendly engagement with the world."
The family added that in the court judgement, the Japanese diplomats whom Dong met were "specifically named as agents of an 'espionage organisation,' which is the Japanese embassy in Beijing".
Dong's conviction implied every Chinese citizen would be "expected to know that the Chinese government may consider those embassies to be 'espionage organisations'", it said, which would cause a chilling effect.
There was a significant police presence outside the court where Dong Yuyu was sentenced in Beijing. (Reuters: Florence Lo)
Police guarded the court on Friday, with seven police cars parked nearby, and journalists were asked to leave the area. A US diplomat said they had been barred from attending the hearing.
Dong has been detained in a Beijing prison since a closed-court hearing in July 2023, the US National Press Club said in September.
Chinese authorities handled the case "strictly in accordance with the law", foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular press briefing on Friday.
Japan's Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya refused to comment on the verdict.
"In any case, diplomatic activities conducted at our missions abroad are legitimate activities," he told a routine press conference.
"Chinese authorities must reverse this unjust verdict, and protect the right of journalists to work freely and safely in China," said Beh Lih Yi, Asia program manager at the Committee to Protect Journalists.
"Dong Yuyu should be reunited with his family immediately."
Dong regularly had in-person exchanges with diplomats from various embassies and journalists.
The Japanese diplomat he met, one of two he had regularly met in the past, was also detained for several hours, spurring a complaint from Japan's foreign ministry.
At the time, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said the diplomat was engaged in activities "inconsistent with their capacity" in China. The diplomat was later released.
Dong Yuyu is a respected journalist and has been published in major news outlets around the world. (Dong Yuyu's family/Handout via Reuters)
A Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2007, Dong was a visiting scholar and visiting professor at Keio University and Hokkaido University in Japan, his family said in a statement in April 2023.
He joined the Guangming Daily, affiliated with the ruling Communist Party, in 1987, after graduating from Peking University Law School, and was the deputy editor of its commentary section.
He wrote opinion articles in Chinese media and liberal academic journals on topics from legal reforms to social issues and co-edited a book promoting the rule of law in China.
His articles advocated moderate reforms while avoiding direct criticism of President Xi Jinping.
His family had initially kept news of his detention private in the hope that charges could be reduced or dropped, but were told in March 2023 that he would stand trial, they said in their statement.
In February, a Beijing court handed a suspended death sentence to Australian writer and pro-democracy blogger Yang Hengjun on espionage charges.
Reuters/ABC