China sentences journalist to seven years on spy charges, family says

Dong Yuyu was a senior columnist for the Communist party newspaper Guangming Daily. Photograph: Dong’s family/Reuters

A veteran Chinese state media journalist has been sentenced by a Beijing court to seven years in prison on espionage charges, his family has said.

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.