A statement signed by 57 PEN Centers worldwide called today for espionage charges to be dropped against the Chinese writer and journalist Dong Yuyu and for his immediate release from detention.

The statement states:

We, the undersigned PEN Centres, are deeply concerned with the detention of Chinese writer and journalist Dong Yuyu on charges of “espionage”. We call for the charges against him to be dropped and for Dong to be released.

Police initially detained Dong Yuyu on Feb. 21, 2022 at a hotel in Beijing while he was having lunch with a Japanese diplomat, who was also briefly detained. On March 23 this year authorities informed Dong’s family that his case had been sent to court for trial on charges of “espionage” though no hearing date has been set and the process may take several months or longer before a trial commences.  

His family have been denied contact with him for the duration of his detention and he has only been granted one meeting with his lawyer. For the first six months of his detention, he was held in “residential surveillance at a designated location,” a form of detention which United Nations human rights experts described as “tantamount to enforced disappearance”. If convicted, he faces between ten years and life imprisonment. 

Dong Yuyu is a liberal commentator and deputy head of the editorial department for Guangming Daily, a state-owned newspaper, where he has worked since 1987. He was awarded a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 2006-07 and was a visiting scholar of Japan’s Keio University in 2010 and Hokkaido University in 2014.

In 1998, he co-edited the book Political China: Facing an Era of Choices for a New System, which contained essays contributed by liberal scholars about judicial independence. In addition to his writing for Guangming Daily, which mainly covered opinion pieces on economic issues, he had written columns for The New York Times Chinese website from 2012-2014, including the essay “I want to send my son to study in the United States” which continues to circulate on Chinese media. Another essay of his, the book review “Viewing the Cultural Revolution from the Perspective of National Politics,” later led to Dong being labeled as “anti-socialist” in 2017.

He reportedly wrote less after that investigation, though penned an opinion piece in 2018 criticizing local government officials that went viral. Dong Yuyu often met with diplomats, journalists, and scholars from other countries as a part of his job to better understand global issues. He knew his communications were monitored by state security and the meetings were always held in a public location. More than 60 journalists and scholars have signed an open letter calling for his release. 

The PRC government has an overbroad and vague definition of espionage, which has become broader in scope recently. On April 26, China’s legislature voted to adopt revisions to the Counter-Espionage Law, to go into effect on July 1, which bans the transfer of any information “related to national security and interests” without defining what that encompasses, providing authorities with discretionary powers to effectively criminalize the sharing of information overseas.

Dong’s arrest and the revision of Counter-Espionage Law are part of an effort by the PRC government to create a chilling effect that makes Chinese nationals, especially journalists and scholars in state-owned institutions, afraid to contact foreign nationals.

Dong Yuyu’s case also has similarities to Australian writer Yang Hengjun, who was put on trial on charges of espionage in May 2021 after two years in pre-trial detention. PEN Centers have also been calling for Yang’s immediate and unconditional release. 

We believe that Dong Yuyu is being unjustly detained in reprisal for his writing and interacting with foreign nationals to help inform his global views, in violation of his right to freedom of expression enshrined under China’s Constitution and international human rights law. We call on authorities to unconditionally drop the charges against him and release him immediately. 

This statement has been signed by:

  • Independent Chinese PEN Center 
  • PEN America
  • PEN International
  • Vietnamese Abroad PEN Centre
  • PEN Esperanto
  • Croatian PEN
  • PEN Romania
  • Pen Tibetan Writers Abroad Centre
  • Basque PEN
  • PEN New Zealand
  • PEN Afghanistan
  • PEN Club France
  • Danish PEN
  • PEN Melbourne
  • PEN Netherlands
  • Swedish PEN
  • Estonian PEN
  • PEN Türkiye
  • PEN Eritrea 
  • English PEN
  • Arman PEN
  • PEN Gambia
  • PEN Perth
  • PEN Català
  • PEN Zambia
  • Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann
  • PEN Uganda
  • PEN Argentina
  • PEN Flanders
  • PEN Canada
  • PEN Nicaragua
  • San Miguel PEN
  • Cuban Writers in Exile Centre
  • PEN Philippines
  • Pen Guadalajara
  • PEN Perú
  • PEN Brazil
  • PEN Paraguay
  • PEN Zimbabwe
  • PEN Honduras
  • PEN Guatemala
  • PEN Bangladesh
  • PEN Uruguay
  • PEN Bolivia
  • PEN Armenia
  • PEN Nigeria
  • PEN Ecuador
  • PEN South Africa
  • PEN Liechtenstein
  • PEN Africaans
  • PEN Belarus
  • PEN Malawi
  • PEN Norway
  • PEN Sierra Leone
  • PEN Kenya
  • PEN Québec
  • PEN Malta
在此处阅读简体中文声明
全球57笔会呼吁释放中国作家董郁玉

我们以下联署的笔会,对中国作家兼新闻业者董郁玉以 “间谍 “罪名遭拘禁深表关切,呼吁撤销其指控并释放他。

董郁玉最初于2022年2月21日在北京一家酒店被警方拘捕,当时他正与一名日本外交官共进午餐,后者也曾短暂被拘。2023年3月23日,当局通知董郁玉的家人,他的案件已被送交法院审理,指控为 “间谍罪”,但没有确定庭审日期。在开始审判前,这一过程可能需要几个月或更长时间。

在他遭拘禁期间,他的家人未获准与他联系,他只被允许与其律师会面一次。在拘禁的前六个月,他被以”指定居所监视居住”关押,这种拘禁形式被联合国人权专家描述为 “相当于强迫失踪”。如果罪名成立,他将面临十年至终身监禁。

董郁玉是一名自由派评论家,原在1987年以来工作的国有《光明日报》任评论部副主任。他于2006-07年获哈佛大学尼曼奖学金,2010年为日本庆应义塾大学访问学者,2014年为日本北海道大学访问学者。

1998年,他与人合编了《政治中国:面向新体制选择的时代》一书,收录了自由派学者撰写的有关司法独立的文章。除了为《光明日报》撰写主要涉及经济问题的评论文章外,他还曾在2012-2014年为《纽约时报》中文网撰写专栏文章,包括在中国媒体上流传的《我要送儿子去美国读大学》一文。他的另一篇文章,即书评《从国家政治的角度看文革》,后来导致在2017年被扣上 “反对社会主义 “的帽子。据报道,在那次审查后,他写得比较少,不过在2018年写了一篇批评当地政府官员的意见书,并在网上流传。

董郁玉经常会见来自其他国家的外交官、记者和学者,作为他工作的一部分以便更熟悉全球问题。他知道自己的交流受到国家安全部门的监控,因此会面总是在公共场所进行。超过60名新闻从业者和学者已签署了一封公开信,呼吁释放他。

中华人民共和国政府对间谍罪行的定义过于宽泛和模糊,最近变得范围更宽。4月26日,中国立法机构投票通过了对《反间谍法》的修订,将于7月1日生效,该法禁止传递任何 “与国家安全和利益有关 “的信息,但没有界定其中包含的内容,赋予当局自由裁量权,有效地将在海外分享信息定为刑事犯罪。

董的被捕和《反间谍法》的修订,是中国政府致力于造成寒蝉效应的一部分,使中国公民尤其是国有机构新闻从业者和学者害怕接触外国人。

董郁玉的个案类似于澳大利亚作家杨恒均,杨在遭拘禁两年后,于2021年5月以间谍罪受审。笔会也一直在呼吁立即无条件释放杨恒均。

我们认为,董郁玉被不公正地拘禁是一种报复,是因其写作以及为了解全球观点而与外国人互动,这侵犯了他的言论自由权,此权已载于中国宪法和国际人权法。我们呼吁当局撤销其指控并立即释放他。

签署者:
独立中文笔会
美国笔会
国际笔会
越南海外笔会
世界语笔会
克罗地亚笔会
罗马尼亚笔会
藏人海外作家笔会
巴斯克笔会
新西兰笔会
阿富汗笔会
法国笔会
丹麦笔会
墨尔本笔会
荷兰笔会
瑞典笔会
爱沙尼亚笔会
土耳其笔会
厄立特里亚笔会
英国笔会
阿曼笔会
冈比亚笔会
珀斯笔会
加泰罗尼亚笔会
赞比亚笔会
爱尔兰笔会
乌干达笔会
阿根廷笔会
比利时荷兰语笔会
加拿大笔会
尼加拉瓜笔会
圣米格尔笔会
古巴流亡作家笔会
菲律宾笔会
瓜达拉哈拉笔会
秘鲁笔会
巴西笔会
巴拉圭笔会
津巴布韦笔会
洪都拉斯笔会
危地马拉笔会
孟加拉笔会
乌拉圭笔会
玻利维亚笔会
亚美尼亚笔会
尼日利亚笔会
厄瓜多尔笔会
南非笔会笔会
列支敦士登笔会
南非荷兰语笔会
白俄罗斯笔会
马拉维笔会
挪威笔会
塞拉利昂笔会
肯尼亚笔会
魁北克笔会
马耳他笔会

[独立中文笔会翻译]