Espionage is a blanket crime used by the Chinese regime to silence journalists in China, according to Reporters Without Borders.
The son of a jailed Chinese journalist is calling on the Chinese regime to release his father. Observers have said that the case shows that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is further tightening control amid intensified political infighting.
Well-known journalist Dong Yuyu was sentenced to seven years in jail for espionage, his son, Dong Yifu, said from the National Press Club in Washington on Feb. 24. Dong Yifu said his father was imprisoned for his long-term advocacy for political reform and democratic constitutionalism in China.
“It is a press freedom issue. It is a human rights issue. It has very little to do with national security or espionage,” Dong Yifu said.
Dong Yuyu, 63, was deputy director of the Commentary Department of Guangming Daily, a state media outlet. He was detained by police in Beijing in February 2022 while he was having lunch with a Japanese diplomat. Chinese police also detained the Japanese diplomat for several hours, which caused protest from the Japanese government.
A Beijing court sentenced Dong Yuyu to seven years in prison for espionage after a closed door trial on Nov. 29, 2024.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not responded to Dong Yifu’s plea to free his father.
From Washington, Dong Yifu said that his father is prepared to appeal his sentencing. The son also urged the Japanese authorities to help prove that his father’s meetings with the Japanese diplomats were not related to espionage.
The Dong Yuyu wrote commentaries for Chinese and foreign media outlets and liberal academic journals, including Yanhuang Chunqiu, a history magazine known for its advocacy of reform; and the Chinese version of The New York Times, covering topics ranging from legal reform to social issues, and co-edited books promoting rule of law in China. His articles advocated for moderate reforms and avoided direct criticism of CCP leader Xi Jinping.
Henry Li, a U.S.-based economist and China affairs commentator, told The Epoch Times on Feb. 27 that Dong Yuyu held a fairly high position in the Guangming Daily. He was “probably a deputy bureau-level cadre,” Li said.
Li believes Dong Yuyu was imprisoned for violating the CCP’s rule on “certain things the Chinese government tells its cadre and the Chinese media not to talk about. It restricts the press and the media from speaking to the outside world.”
“This violates basic civil rights and the citizens’ right to know,” Li said.
Li said that in the CCP’s China, journalists often contact and communicate with foreign officials and diplomats stationed in China, and exchange ideas with each other. “So this made the Chinese national security suspicious of [Dong Yuyu] but no one expected that they would use this to convict him,” Li said.
Zhao Lanjian, a Chinese investigative journalist living in exile in the United States, told The Epoch Times on March 1 that, although Dong was a senior member of the party media, if he had any in-depth discussions and exchanges with foreign think tanks, scholars, or media, this might be defined as “leaking secrets” or “being influenced by the West” in the CCP’s current political environment.
“Perhaps some things he said, or remarks at the Chinese media’s internal discussion, are considered challenging to the CCP’s official political security bottom line by authorities, especially since the CCP’s control over news and public opinion is so tight that even internal discussions can become evidence of guilt,” Zhao said.
Zhao recalled that some years ago, China-based journalists and scholars still had a little freedom within a certain range to communicate with the outside world.
“But now, such behavior may get them directly charged with ‘endangering national security,’” he said. “The spread of the CCP’s state terrorism has made professionals in social, historical, political, and labor research terrified and they feel that they are treading on thin ice every day.”
CCP’s Internal Purge
Dong Yuyu’s case may be a typical example of the CCP’s ongoing “political purge,” according to Zhao.
In recent years, the CCP’s internal suppression has not only targeted opposing factions, but also moderates, reformists, and intellectuals within the CCP’s system who have had contact with the outside world.
Zhao said he believes Dong Yuyu is a victim of factional struggles within the CCP.
“Currently, the CCP’s propaganda system is also full of internal struggles, and propaganda outlets controlled by different factions may have differences in policy implementation,” he said.
Zhao noted that in recent years the Chinese leader “has carried out a tough rectification of the CCP’s propaganda outlets.”
“Some editors, commentators, and even officials who have more independent thinking have been purged one after another.”
Suppression of a Free Press
The U.S. government has paid special attention to Dong Yuyu’s case. The United States–China Economic and Security Review Commission cited his sentencing as an example of the CCP’s suppression of foreign contact in its report published in November 2024.
The U.S. State Department posted on X on Feb. 21, saying Dong Yuyu’s treatment highlights “the Chinese government’s continued efforts to suppress its citizens’ rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.”
The department called for “the immediate and unconditional release of Dong Yuyu.”
Zhao said the international community does not look lightly on China’s “contracting political space.”
The U.S. State Department, think tanks, and press freedom organizations usually pay attention to such cases “as it illustrates the severity of the CCP’s suppression of freedom of speech,” Zhao said. “Private scholars feel even more terrified.”
The Paris-based NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) also called for Dong Yuyu’s release last November, saying that he’s one of 123 journalists and press freedom defenders currently known to be detained by the Chinese regime.
China ranked 172 out of the 180 countries and territories evaluated in RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index.
“To further silence journalists, it accuses them of ‘espionage,’ ’subversion,‘ or ’picking quarrels and provoking trouble‘—three ’pocket crimes;’ a term used by Chinese law experts to describe offenses that are so broadly defined that they can be applied to almost any activity,” RSF wrote in its report.
Luo Ya and The Associated Press contributed to this report.