November 13, 2025
Today’s decision by the Beijing High Court is a shameless act of persecution. Only by completely disregarding logic and reason can a court of law come up with such a decision.
It will go down in history as one of the most egregious offenses against journalists and intellectuals by the Chinese authorities.
Upholding the verdict to sentence Yuyu Dong to seven years in prison on bogus charges of espionage shows to the world that China’s justice system is a laughing stock and inflicts irreversible harm on China’s international image diplomacy.
Even after hearing Yuyu’s appeal presenting ample evidence and sufficient logic to prove his innocence, the court rejects the reasoning and evidence from Yuyu, Yuyu’s lawyers, and the Japanese side, refusing to correct a grave error and instead choosing to double down on repression.
This result is all the more absurd given the Beijing High Court’s repeated delays in rendering a decision. If the trial verdict is so correct and so well-reasoned, why take this long to uphold it?
As we have made clear in our previous family statements, Yuyu’s seven-year-sentence reflects a shocking overreach and abuse of power by China’s state security (SS), threatens all foreigners who interact with Chinese citizens, silences all freethinking Chinese citizens open to interacting with the world, intentionally chills people-to-people exchange, and trashes China’s diplomacy and international image.
When the verdict at trial first came out last November, our family issued ten questions challenging the logic, evidence, and validity of the judgment. The Beijing High Court, on appeal, fails to address those questions.
Specifically, the government fails to address the arbitrary and baseless determination that eight Japanese diplomats, including the former ambassador Mr. Hideo Tarumi and top diplomat Mr. Masaru Okada, were agents of an espionage organization. The Chinese government has not expelled the Japanese diplomats it determined as spies.
This behavior indicates that the Chinese government is willing to wrongfully label foreigners as spies for the purpose of prosecuting Chinese citizens, putting all foreigners in China at risk.
Furthermore, to satisfy the “knowing” element of the espionage charge under Chinese law, the prosecutors argued that Yuyu should have known that the Japanese diplomats, with whom he interacted for over two decades and who were allowed to work in China for over two decades without being expelled by China, were spies.
The most absurd contention by China’s SS is that Mr. Tarumi, the former ambassador, was a spy. Mr. Tarumi presented his credentials to President Xi Jinping and was allowed to serve until the end of his term as ambassador, even after the SS had determined that Mr. Tarumi was a spy in Yuyu’s case.
This means that all Chinese citizens should know that foreign diplomats, lawfully present in China with the permission of the Chinese government and the blessings of the Chinese leadership, are spies that they should not interact with.
Either China’s SS abandoned its duties by allowing spies from a foreign countries to operate in China without expelling them for over two decades, even after determining that they were spies, or the SS’s determination is wrong and Yuyu is therefore innocent.
Such logic by the Chinese authorities clearly indicates that the Chinese government does not welcome foreigners and discourages people-to-people exchange. Any of its claims otherwise only reveals hypocrisy.
The Chinese government is also making a futile effort to rattle its teeth in its recent confrontation with Japan by making false accusations and punishing an innocent Chinese citizen. Such a cowardly and childish act of injustice is an embarrassment for the Chinese nation. It shows the world the vicious, self-deceiving essence of China’s diplomacy.
Additionally, the prosecutors presented no motive and no evidence of any monetary benefits Yuyu received for his alleged espionage. The SS instead argued that his fellowships abroad, including the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University and multiple short-term fellowships at Japanese universities, were the real benefits he received.
Such reasoning is beyond ridiculous and extremely threatening. Many on the Chinese internet even applauded this logic, arguing that Harvard is a base for transforming Chinese students and scholars into spies and even calling for all Nieman Fellows from China to be arrested. Now all Chinese scholars and intellectuals, hundreds of thousands over the past years, who have been on exchanges to foreign universities can have their experience abroad used as evidence for espionage in a Chinese court.
Because the evidence by the prosecution is extremely weak, it naturally failed to state in which way Yuyu endangered China’s national security. The Beijing High Court recognized the weakness of the prosecution’s case and provided the prosecution an opportunity to gather more evidence in May, but the prosecutors offered none.
That is why this decision, after repeated delays and deliberation, is even more outrageous. And that is why the real reason for Yuyu’s persecution is his lifelong outspokenness for democracy, human rights, and political reforms in China.
As a moderate, non-partisan, independent voice within the Chinese system, Yuyu has embodied the conscience of journalism and maintained a high standard of professionalism. His writings, public service-oriented and outspoken about even the most sensitive of political issues, have earned him admiration and recognition from colleagues both within China and abroad.
This August, Yuyu was recognized with the President’s Award by the National Press Club for his lifelong dedication to journalism and his courage, integrity, and service to the public’s right to know.
This November, the Committee to Protect Journalists is awarding Yuyu the annual International Press Freedom Award. Yuyu, through his lawyers (because he has not been allowed to see family members in the past three years and nine months), has learned about these awards. He told the lawyers that he is extremely grateful for the honors and encouragement during this difficult time.
Our family is very grateful for the lawyers—Mr. Mo Shaoping, Mr. Zhang Dongshuo, and Mr. Shang Baojun—the National Press Club, the Committee to Protect Journalists, all who signed on to open letters calling for Yuyu’s release (with a few having passed away during Yuyu’s long detention), and all who have supported us through encouraging words and acts of kindness.
Meanwhile, to counter the unlawful, slanderous attacks Yuyu and our family that have flooded the Chinese internet over the past two years, our family is starting the “Free Yuyu Dong” online newsletter (via Substack), through which we will highlight many of Yuyu’s past writings (with full translations into English).
Yuyu’s words have always demonstrated that he is not a traitor as the Chinese government would like the world to believe, but rather a true patriot who cares about the Chinese people with compassion and responds to the injustices in Chinese society with righteous fury. In the coming years, even though Yuyu will continue to be imprisoned, our family will share Yuyu’s words and thoughts with the wider world.
Even though today’s judgment is final within China’s oppressive legal system, our fight for justice is only beginning. We will seek all other avenues for overturning Yuyu’s wrongful conviction. And we are grateful in advance for all the support we will receive along the way.