A outstanding Chinese language journalist was sentenced in a Beijing courtroom to seven years in jail for espionage, based on his household.
Dong Yuyu, a commentator and editor, was detained by police in February 2022 whereas he was assembly a Japanese diplomat at a restaurant, based on The Related Press, and has been in police custody since.
The decision on Friday named then-Japanese ambassador Hideo Tarumi and Shanghai-based chief diplomat Masaru Okada as brokers belonging to an espionage group, Dong’s household stated.
CHINA RELEASES 3 ‘WRONGFULLY DETAINED’ AMERICANS, WHITE HOUSE SAYS
Chinese language journalist Dong Yuyu stands on the gates of the Nieman Basis for Journalism at Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass., in Might 2017. (Dong Household by way of AP)
Dong had served because the deputy head of the editorial division at Guangming Every day, a state-owned newspaper in China. He additionally contributed to the Chinese language version of the New York Instances.
His printed work contains his assist for constitutional democracy and political reform, which have been later deemed to be in opposition to the place of China’s Communist Occasion.
Dong had contacts with international diplomats, students and different journalists by means of his decades-long profession as a journalist. He additionally thought-about Tarumi as a buddy.
‘BE AWARE’: HOUSE LAWMAKERS DESCRIBE WHAT IT’S LIKE LIVING UNDER THREAT BY CHINA, IRAN
Dong Yuyu, a commentator and editor, was detained by police in February 2022 whereas he was assembly a Japanese diplomat at a restaurant. (iStock)
His household stated he knew he was at all times watched by state safety, so he wished to be as open as attainable whereas assembly his Japanese or American contacts.
“With Yuyu’s conviction, each Chinese language citizen, when coping with the Japanese embassy — or maybe another international embassy and diplomat — shall be anticipated to know that the Chinese language authorities could think about these embassies to be ‘espionage organizations,'” the household stated in an announcement. “Each wise Chinese language citizen needs to be appalled by this reasoning.”
Dong had contacts with international diplomats, students and different journalists by means of his decades-long profession as a journalist. (iStock)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The U.S. Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, criticized Dong’s conviction.
“Punishing Dong for exercising his freedom of speech and the press, assured by the PRC’s structure for all its residents, is unjust,” Burns stated.
The Related Press contributed to this report.