Beijing

A journalist, Dong Yuyu, was jailed for seven years on Friday (Nov 29) for espionage, his family confirmed to BBC. The 62-year-old former state media journalist from China was detained in 2022 and was reportedly active in the journalism sector of the US and Japan and also used to regularly meet foreign diplomats. 

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He was arrested when he was having lunch with a Japanese diplomat in Beijing in February 2022. 

The diplomat was also arrested at that time but later released after the Japanese government protested the arrest. 

During his arrest, Yuyu was serving as the senior staff member of the Guangming Daily. It is one of the five major newspapers linked to the ruling Communist Party in the country. 

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Yuyu's family said in a statement to BBC that according to a court judgement, two other Japanese diplomats Dong met with were named as "agents of an espionage organisation", which is the Japanese embassy.

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"We are shocked that the Chinese authorities would blatantly deem a foreign embassy an 'espionage organization'," his family said, according to BBC. 

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"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,” they further added.

The court where he was sentenced bared diplomats to attend the hearing and journalists were asked to leave, Reuters reported. 

"Chinese authorities must reverse this unjust verdict, and protect the right of journalists to work freely and safely in China," Beh Lih Yi, Asia programme manager at the Committee to Protect Journalists told Reuters.

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"Dong Yuyu should be reunited with his family immediately," he further added. 

Yuyu has been a professor at various Japanese universities and a Nieman fellow at Harvard University in 2007.

“In the past, the Chinese court system has selected Western holidays to release news as it is a time when the public is focused on other matters,” the US National Press Club told BBC. 

(With inputs from agencies)