The son of the Chinese journalist, who is detained for espionage, calls on his father's release

Washington – The son of a Chinese journalist who was accused of the espionage called for his father's release from a seven -year prison sentence in the top -class case that signaled Beijing's tight grip on journalism.

Dong Yuyu, then the leading editor of a newspaper led with the communist party, which was increasingly not with the hardening of the party's party, was arrested in February 2022 when he had to eat with a Japanese diplomat in Beijing.

Dong Yifu said on Monday in the National Press Club in Washington that his father plans to appeal to his convictions. He asked the Japanese authorities to show that the meetings of the Senior Dong had nothing to do with Japanese diplomats.

“It is a problem with freedom of the press. It is a question of human rights. It has very little to do with national security or espionage, “said the younger Dong.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately answer a request for a comment.

Dong Yuyu was previously deputy head of the comment department of the Guangming Daily, a newspaper that was once considered a liberal than other party business.

Dong wrote articles that argue for constitutional democracy, political reforms and official accountability – views that were once openly discussed in party business, but are now in favor of disgrace.

From 2006 to 2007 he was Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and was a hospitality of the Keio University in Japan in 2010. He later worked as a visiting professor at Hokkaido University in Japan before returning to China.

Dong's arrest, who had a shocked journalist and diplomats throughout China just two months before the retirement of Guangming Daily. It is common for journalists to maintain contact with diplomats as part of their news gathering.

The younger dong says that his mother later heard in court that meetings with eight Japanese diplomats were listed as evidence against his father.

Last November, Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court Dong sentenced to seven years in prison for espionage, his family said before. The then American ambassador Nicholas Burns wrote at the time when the judgment was unfair.

Japan's deputy Foreign Minister Masashi Mizobuchi said on Wednesday that all diplomatic activities of officials from the Japanese embassy and the consulate in China were part of their legitimate duties.

In December, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs protested the “disadvantage” that the judgment for Chinese citizens has with a friendly exchange with the Japanese message and their civil servants, and warns that it affects the economic and personal exchange with China.

Dong is in good health and tried to stay fit through 200 pushups and 200 leg increases per day, said his son, but he only gets sunlight a year and was not allowed to see his wife.

Dong's lawyer can meet the journalist once a month and bring him his wife's handwritten letters, added the younger dong, and his father prepared a 45-page handwritten document for the appointment.

Last Friday, the US State Department called for the immediate and unconditional publication of Dong in one post on X.

Reporters without borders based in Paris also criticized China's Press Freedom situation in a statement and said that the country was “the largest prison in the world for journalists” with more than 100 currently stipulated.

The organization said that Beijing often calculates journalists because of espionage to silence them, as well as excessive broad fees such as subversion and “selection of disputes and provocative problems”.

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Associated Press Writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to Tokyo.