Asian Lawyers Network is joining an urgent message protesting the arbitrary sentencing of the journalist and public intellectual Dong Yuyu in China. You can read the full message below.
An online petition on change.org with the same text below in Japanese calling for his release and which you can sign is available here.
Journalist and Public Intellectual Dong Yuyu
Urgent Message Regarding the Arbitrary Sentencing of Dong Yuyu in China
3 December 2024
On November 29, 2024, the Second Intermediate People's Court of Beijing, China, sentenced Mr. Dong Yuyu, a Chinese national, to seven years in prison. We are deeply concerned about this and protest to the Chinese government and relevant authorities, and we strongly urge that he be released without charge.
A longtime reporter for the Communist Party-affiliated daily Guangming Daily, where he even served as deputy editorial department chief, Mr. Dong is an outstanding journalist and public speaker, and above all, a patriotic intellectual who hopes for a better China. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in the U.S. from 2006 to 2007, a visiting scholar at Keio University in Japan in 2010, and a visiting professor at Hokkaido University in 2014.
In 1998, Mr. Dong co-edited Political China: Facing an Era of Choices for a New System, a collection of essays on judicial independence. He also wrote columns for the Chinese-language website of The New York Times. One of those columns, an essay “I Want to Send My Son to Study in the United States,” which is still circulating in Chinese Internet space, and another essay, “The Cultural Revolution from a National Political Perspective,” led to Dong being labeled an “anti-patriot” and an “anti-socialist”. Dong was investigated by the relevant authorities and apparently reduced his writing activities, but in 2018 he again made headlines for writing an article criticizing local government officials.
Some of the initiators of this message have been in contact with Mr. Dong and have maintained communication with him since he was a student at Peking University. They are convinced that through their intellectual exchanges with Mr. Dong, they have gained a better understanding of the real picture of China. On this basis, Mr. Dong has also worked to expand Sino-Japanese exchanges at the grassroots level. Since 2012, the Chinese government has been strengthening its crackdown on dissenters in the name of “national security”, which we believe is not only unprofitable and unbeneficial for China itself, but is also detrimental to its good name.
The Chinese government is tightening its crackdown on its own citizens, including human rights activists and the lawyers who support them, which is not in line with the reform and open-door policy it has followed for the past 30 years. It is precisely because of this reform and open-door policy that China has become the world's second-largest economy today and has enhanced its standing in the international community. The overwhelming majority of the Chinese people have supported this policy and have been proud of their government. The Chinese government's recent harshness toward speech activities seems as if it is expressing a lack of confidence in its achievements, as if it is denying itself the support of the public.
Surveillance of foreigners stationed or residing in China is likewise becoming increasingly strict. In particular, 17 Japanese nationals have been detained and arrested on espionage charges since the Anti-Spying Law went into effect in 2014. Chinese nationals who have worked in Japan for many years have also been arrested upon their return to China and are missing. We believe that they are not spies, but what is serious is that the definition of “spy” is vague and the “charges” are never clarified.
The Chinese government has reinstated the visa waiver treatment for Japanese nationals to stay in China for a short period of time, effective November 30. We welcome this. However, we cannot deny that many people are hesitant to visit China because the definition of “spy” is unclear and the grounds for suspicion of espionage are not disclosed. We hope that China's diplomacy will now show the “tolerance” that it has been advocating.
Mr. Dong was having lunch with a Japanese diplomat at a hotel in Beijing on February 21, 2022, when he was suddenly taken away. The diplomat was also detained for a short period of time, and the Japanese government has sternly protested against it. According to Dong's family, eight Japanese diplomats were named in the oral verdict. These eight diplomats and former diplomats have already been identified by the Chinese government as accomplices, so to speak.
This is a denial of diplomacy. It is part of their duties to exchange views with academics and media representatives at their assigned location. We do not believe that the conviction of Mr. Dong should create an atrophying effect that makes Chinese and foreign nationals, journalists, and scholars afraid to contact each other.
Mr. Dong Yuyu is not a spy but a patriot who wishes and thinks for a better future for his country, China. He is an independent critical spirit and has tried to follow the path he believes in as a journalist. We urge the Chinese government to guarantee the right to freedom of expression guaranteed by the Chinese Constitution and international human rights law and to release Mr. Dong Yuyu.
December 3, 2024
All those calling for the acquittal and release of Mr. Dong Yuyu
Initiators: Tomoko Ako, Kazuyuki Suwa, Inui Endo
