Dong Yuyu, a senior columnist at the Communist Party newspaper Guangming Daily, was detained in February 2022 along with a Japanese diplomat at a Beijing restaurant.
The diplomat was released after a few hours of questioning, but Dong, 62, has been in custody since and was charged with spying last year.
A statement shared with journalists by his family said, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court convicted Yuyu of espionage, a crime that requires that the prosecution prove that the defendant knowingly acted on behalf of ‘espionage organisations’ and their agents.
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According to the judgement, the Japanese diplomats Dong with the then-ambassador Hideo Tarumi, and current Shanghai-based chief diplomat, Masaru Okada, were named as agents of an “espionage organisation.
Beijing’s foreign ministry’s spokeswoman, Mao Ning, responded to Dong’s case at a regular press conference by saying China is a country ruled by law, adding that those who violate the law and commit crimes will be investigated according to the law, while the Japanese embassy said they would not comment on the case.
Under Chinese law, someone convicted of espionage can be jailed for three to 10 years for less severe cases or receive heavy punishment, including life imprisonment, for serious cases.
Dong won the prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 2006-2007.
He was also a visiting fellow at Keio University in Japan in 2010 and a visiting professor at Hokkaido University in 2014.
Civil liberties and freedom of expression have dramatically receded in China under President Xi Jinping’s decade-long tenure.
The Communist Party maintains tight restrictions on domestic media outlets, and Chinese nationals who work with foreign outlets are routinely harassed.
China is reportedly the worst country for jailing media workers with 44 journalists behind bars as of December last year, according to a Committee to Protect Journalists ranking.
In February, it was also reported that a Beijing court handed a suspended death sentence to jailed dissident writer Yang Hengjun after finding the dual Chinese-Australian citizen guilty of espionage charges.