Urgent Attention: Former Guangming Daily Commentary Department Deputy Director Dong Yuyu, Sentenced to 7 Years for Espionage, Recently Found to Have a Lung Tumor and an Irregular Heartbeat; His Health Is Cause for Concern

（Rights Defense Network Information Center report）On May 6, 2026, this outlet learned that Mr. Dong Yuyu, a former editor at Guangming Daily who was sentenced to seven years for espionage, was recently found to have a lung tumor and an irregular heartbeat, and that his health is cause for concern.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists（Committee to Protect Journalists）: The family of Dong Yuyu, a former editor at Guangming Daily who was sentenced to seven years for espionage, told CPJ that Dong Yuyu was recently found to have a lung tumor measuring 3.3 × 2.2 centimeters that is growing rapidly, and that Dong Yuyu has become visibly emaciated. Medical examinations also showed that he has an irregular heartbeat. Doctors have fitted him with a Holter monitor to record his heart rhythm for 24 hours.

Mr. Dong Yuyu was transferred to Tianjin Chaobai Prison to serve his sentence on March 17, 2026. This outlet strongly urges the CCP authorities, on humanitarian grounds, to immediately release Mr. Dong Yuyu so that he can receive timely and effective medical care and treatment.

Biography of Dong Yuyu: Born in 1962, a native of Fushun City, Liaoning Province; a participant in and eyewitness to the June Fourth events; a former visiting scholar at Harvard University in the United States and Keio University and Hokkaido University in Japan; deputy director of the Commentary Department of Guangming Daily; liberal thinker; political prisoner in China.

He studied in the Department of Law at Peking University in his early years and, after graduating in 1987, began working at Guangming Daily;

In 1989, he was sent down for one year for participating in the June Fourth protests. He later returned to Guangming Daily and wrote for the domestic historical magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu, as well as commentaries for the Chinese-language website of The New York Times;

In 2006, he spent one year as a visiting scholar at Harvard University after receiving a Nieman Fellowship for Journalism there. He later also served as a visiting scholar at Keio University and Hokkaido University in Japan;

On February 21, 2022, he was suddenly taken away by police for investigation after having lunch with a Japanese diplomat at the Xinqiao Hotel in Beijing. The Japanese diplomat was also taken away and released several hours later, but he was detained for an extended period, with the alleged offense unclear. That day, the Japanese government immediately lodged a protest over the matter, while the Chinese government responded that the two men were investigated and detained because they had engaged in activities that were “inconsistent” with their work;

After he had been detained for more than a year, on March 23, 2023, his family finally received notification from Beijing police claiming that he had been formally arrested on suspicion of “espionage” and prosecuted by a procuratorate in Beijing. His case was soon transferred to a Beijing court for trial. His family insisted that he was neither a spy nor a foreign agent. In order to seek justice, family members who had previously chosen to remain silent decided to make the matter public;

It is understood that since his detention, his family has not been allowed to meet with him, and his defense lawyer has been allowed to meet with him only once. To date, the specific date of his trial by the court remains unclear. He is currently being held in a detention center somewhere in southern Beijing.

On November 29, 2024, Dong Yuyu was sentenced by the CCP authorities to seven years in prison for “espionage.” Sentence end date: February 20, 2029. On November 13, 2025, the second-instance judgment was handed down: the appeal was rejected and the original judgment upheld. On March 17, 2026, he was transferred to Tianjin Chaobai Prison to serve his sentence.

This outlet will continue to follow Mr. Dong Yuyu’s situation.