A Beijing court gave Dong Yuyu a seven-year prison term for spy-related charges‚ following his meet-up with Japanese officials about two years ago. The ex-state media expert (who is in his early 60s) got arrested during a lunch meeting with a Japan embassy worker
The case shows how risky foreign contacts became for Chinese journalists: Dong worked at the party-linked Guangming Daily since late 80s and was well-known for his smart legal writings. His background includes studying at top-schools like Harvard and Japanese unis - which made him good at talking with people from other countries
Police kept watch near the court-house while the verdict came out (with seven patrol cars nearby); a US embassy person couldnt get in to watch. The Japanese side didnt say much about the case but noted that their diplomatic work is always by-the-book; meanwhile Chinese officials just said they followed all rules
Sentencing Yuyu to seven years in prison on no evidence declares to the world the bankruptcy of the justice system in China
His family points out a weird thing: the court called Japanese embassy an “espionage organisation“ - which means any Chinese person meeting embassy folks could get in trouble. Over 700 news-people and teachers signed something to help free him
The whole thing started when Dong met two Japanese embassy workers for lunch in early-2022; they held him after that. Before this mess he wrote for big Chinese papers about law stuff and social things - always being careful not to say bad things about leaders