BEIJING (AP) — China on Monday sentenced a 78-year-old U.S. citizen to life in prison on espionage charges, in a case that could exacerbate the deterioration in ties between Beijing and Washington in recent years.
Details of the charges against John Shing-Wan Leung, who also has permanent residency in Hong Kong, have not been made public.
Leung was detained by the local bureau of China’s Counterintelligence Service in the southeastern city of Suzhou on April 15, 2021, according to a statement posted by the city’s intermediary court on its social media site. His detention came after China closed its borders and imposed strict domestic travel restrictions and social controls to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Such investigations and trials take place behind closed doors and little information is generally released except for vague allegations of infiltration, collecting secrets and threatening state security.
Relations between Washington and Beijing are at their lowest point in decades amid disputes over trade, technology, human rights and China’s increasingly aggressive approach to its territorial claims involving self-governing Taiwan and the South China Sea. High-level government visits have been suspended and US companies are delaying major investments amid mixed messages from Beijing.
The sentencing comes as US President Joe Biden is on a trip to Hiroshima, Japan, for the top of the group of seven major industrial nations, followed by a visit to Papua New Guinea, a Pacific island nation in a region where China has sought to increase its economic, military and diplomatic influence. Following Beijing’s gains in the area, the US and its Asia-Pacific partners strengthened their regional presence, offering investment and financial support to rival that of China.
Now the second largest economy in the world, China is expanding its footprint in ports, railways and other infrastructure from Europe to Southeast Asia and beyond.
While the Suzhou court gave no indication of any connection to overall China-US relations, the espionage allegations are highly selective and no evidence is released to substantiate them. That’s standard in most countries that want to secure their personal connections, networks and access to information.
However, China’s authoritarian political system and the ruling Communist Party’s absolute control over legal affairs, civil society and freedom of information prevent demands for further information, as well as appeals.
The US embassy in Beijing said it was aware of the matter, but was unable to comment further due to privacy concerns. “The State Department has no greater priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens abroad,” the embassy said in the emailed statement.
The government of Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese control in 1997, had no immediate information about Leung’s conviction.
When it was returned to China, Hong Kong was promised it would keep its financial, social and political freedoms, but Beijing has essentially sunk that commitment since its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters and imposing a sweeping national security law in 2020.
Chinese national security services have, too raided the offices of foreign consultancies in Beijing and other cities as part of a crackdown on foreign companies providing sensitive economic data.
Foreign companies operating in China are coming under increasing pressure as Xi Jinping’s government tightens control over the economy. That is in stark contrast to efforts to lure foreign investors back after draconian COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted early this year.
Lengthy pretrial detentions are not uncommon in China, and prosecutors have extensive powers to detain people in national security matters, regardless of their citizenship.
Two Chinese-Australians, Cheng Lei, who formerly worked for China’s state broadcaster, and writer Yang Jun, have been detained since 2020 and 2019, respectively, with no record of their convictions.
The distrust of the government is mainly aimed at Chinese-born foreign citizens and people from Taiwan and Hong Kong, especially if they have political contacts or work in academia or publishing.
Under Xi, the party has launched multiple campaigns against what it calls foreign attempts to sabotage its rule, without showing evidence. Universities have been ordered to censor discussions of human rights, modern Chinese history and ideas that could raise questions about the Communist Party’s total control.
Xi’s government has also taken a tough stance on foreign relations, issuing an expulsion order in retaliation for Ottawa’s expulsion of a Canadian diplomat. staff member at the Chinese embassy accused of threatening a member of the Canadian Parliament and his relatives living in Hong Kong.
That aligns with Xi’s confrontational global stance that China is collaborating with Russia in accusing the West of provoking Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and trying to overthrow the US-led liberal dominance of global affairs.
