A celebrated state media journalist is sentenced to jail for seven years for speaking to foreign diplomats.

By Lisa Peryman for Probe International

The U.S. State Department has condemned the sentencing of a veteran Chinese state media journalist to seven years in prison on espionage charges, calling for his immediate release.

Dong Yuyu, 62, a former Harvard Nieman fellow and prominent editor and writer for Guangming Daily, a leading Communist Party newspaper, was known for advocating liberal ideas and openness in China. Dong, who met openly with diplomats from Japan and the United States, as well as international scholars and journalists, was detained by China’s main intelligence agency as he dined at a restaurant with a Japanese diplomat in February 2022. Although both men were taken for questioning, the diplomat was later released, but Dong remained held and was later tried behind closed doors in July 2023. He is the most prominent journalist to be imprisoned in mainland China.

The severe sentence occurs amidst contradictory policies under China’s leader, Xi Jinping. While Xi aims to maintain stable U.S.-China relations and encourages foreigners to contribute to China’s economy, he also urges Chinese citizens to report potential spies and empowers security agencies to arrest alleged subversives, regardless of justification. 

In court, the judgment accused the Japanese Embassy in Beijing of being an “espionage organization” and named several Japanese diplomats Dong knew, including a former ambassador and the current chief diplomat in Shanghai, as agents. The Japanese foreign ministry defended its diplomats, stating they were performing legitimate duties.

Former colleague, China’s iconic investigative environmental journalist Dai Qing—no stranger herself to China’s penal system—describes the arrest and sentencing of her longtime friend as “an unfathomable mystery” in Beijing.

“Even among all of my acquaintances,” she said, “no one understands how someone with virtually no access to classified information could be convicted of providing state secrets to foreign entities.”

Dai collaborated with Dong on the pioneering 1989 release, Yangtze! Yangtze! (a critique of China’s state vanity project Three Gorges Dam that would finally begin construction in 1994). She remembers Dong “never hesitated to offer me unwavering warmth and support” when she was imprisoned for 10 months in 1989 for her role in the Tiananmen Square protests. 

A talented media presence, celebrated in academic circles both inside and outside of China, Dong, said Dai, “never used these achievements as a stepping stone for promotion or [as] an opportunity to seek a different path. Instead he remained steadfast and resilient in his position, tirelessly striving to ensure that even the faintest independent voice could be heard in China.”

Dong’s case could become a significant issue under the administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has vowed a confrontational approach to China. Senator Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, has proposed legislation to punish China for human rights abuses.

In its criticism of the decision, the U.S. State Department said China had failed to uphold its commitments under international law and its own constitutional guarantees to all citizens, including the right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The sentencing was condemned as unjust by the U.S. Ambassador to China, R. Nicholas Burns.