Dong Yuyu, former deputy director of the Commentary Department of Guangming Daily, sentenced to 7 years, transferred to Tianjin Chaobai Prison to serve his sentence

（Rights Defense Network Information Center report）On April 21, 2026，this outlet learned：Dong Yuyu, former deputy director of the Commentary Department of Guangming Daily, who was sentenced to 7 years, was transferred to Tianjin Chaobai Prison on March 17, 2026, to serve his sentence。

Biography of Dong Yuyu：Born in 1962，he is from Fushun, Liaoning Province，a participant in the June Fourth protests，a former visiting scholar at Harvard University in the United States, Keio University in Japan and Hokkaido University in Japan，former deputy director of the Commentary Department of Guangming Daily，a liberal thinker，and a political prisoner detained in China。

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

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

In 2006，he became a visiting scholar at Harvard University for one year after receiving the university's Nieman Journalism Fellowship，and 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 questioning after having lunch with a Japanese diplomat at the Xinqiao Hotel in Beijing，and 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 had been investigated and detained because they had engaged in activities “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 thereafter transferred to a Beijing court for trial；his family firmly maintains that he is neither a spy nor a foreign agent，and, in order to seek justice, family members who had previously chosen to remain silent decided to make the matter public；

It is learned that since his detention，his family has continuously been barred from seeing him，and his defense lawyer has met with him only once；to date，the specific date of his trial by the court remains unclear。He is currently detained at an unknown detention center in southern Beijing.

On November 29, 2024，Dong Yuyu was sentenced to 7 years in prison by the Chinese Communist authorities for “espionage”。Sentence expires on: February 20, 2029。On November 13, 2025，the second-instance ruling was announced: the appeal was rejected and the original judgment upheld。He was transferred to Tianjin Chaobai Prison on March 17, 2026, to serve his sentence。