The State Division has denounced a Chinese language court docket’s sentencing of a distinguished journalist, Dong Yuyu, to seven years in jail and stated it stood together with his circle of relatives in calling for his “speedy and unconditional liberate.”A court docket in Beijing introduced the sentence on Friday for his conviction on fees of espionage. Mr. Dong, 62, a former Harvard Nieman fellow, has been held since February 2022, when officials from the Ministry of State Safety, China’s major intelligence company, detained him and a Jap diplomat whilst they ate lunch in a cafe.The officials launched the diplomat after an interrogation, however prosecutors put Mr. Dong on trial in the back of closed doorways in July 2023. He’s essentially the most distinguished journalist imprisoned in mainland China.Matthew Miller, the State Division spokesman, stated in a commentary on Friday that Mr. Dong’s “arrest and these days’s sentencing spotlight the P.R.C.’s failure to are living as much as its commitments underneath world legislation and its personal constitutional promises to all its voters.” He used the initials of the formal identify of the rustic, the Other folks’s Republic of China.“We rejoice Dong’s paintings as a veteran journalist and editor, in addition to his contributions to U.S.-P.R.C. people-to-people ties, together with as a Harvard College Nieman fellow,” Mr. Miller added. “We stand by means of Dong and his circle of relatives and speak to for his speedy and unconditional liberate.”R. Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China and a former Harvard professor, additionally issued a commentary of condemnation, calling the sentencing “unjust.”Thanks in your persistence whilst we test get entry to. In case you are in Reader mode please go out and log into your Occasions account, or subscribe for all of The Occasions.Thanks in your persistence whilst we test get entry to.Already a subscriber? Log in.Need all of The Occasions? Subscribe.
