Dong Yuyu

Dong Yuyu is a former Chinese journalist and editor for the Guangming Daily. He was detained by the Chinese authorities in 2022 and indicted on charges of espionage the next year. He was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in 2024.

Early life and education Dong was born in April 1962 in Fushun. He graduated from Peking University Law School with an M.L. degree in 1987.

Career In 1987 after graduating from law school, Dong began working for the Guangming Daily, a Chinese Communist Party newspaper

Arrest and imprisonment In February 2022, Dong was detained by Chinese authorities while lunching with a Japanese diplomat at the Novotel Xin Qiao hotel in downtown Beijing. He was formally arrested six months later and in March 2023 was indicted on charges of espionage. On 29 November 2024, Dong's family said that he had been sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for espionage. On November 13, 2025, Beijing's High People's Court upheld his seven-year prison sentence. The court did not provide reasons for rejecting Dong's appeal. The rejection is final under the Chinese justice system.

Dong's arrest and imprisonment were criticized by the United States Department of State, press advocacy groups, academics, and others.

On 17 March 2026, Dong was transferred from Beijing No. 2 prison to Chaobai Prison in Tianjin. The Committee to Protect Journalists criticised the decision to move him further away from his family in Beijing.