New York, October 9, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Chinese authorities to immediately release journalist Dong Yuyu, after a court again delayed a decision on his appeal against a seven-year prison sentence for espionage.

Dong, 63, a long-time editor and columnist for the state-run newspaper Guangming Daily, was arrested in February 2022 while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat in the capital Beijing. He was convicted in November 2024 and appealed against the sentence the next month.

A ruling on the appeal was originally expected by early May, but was extended twice to October 13. On Thursday, Dong’s family, who spoke with CPJ, was informed that the Beijing High Court had pushed the deadline to January 13.

“No journalist should be jailed on espionage charges for having lunch with a diplomat,” said CPJ Asia-Pacific Director Beh Lih Yi. “Dong Yuyu has been in prison for more than three years; it is time to end this injustice and let him be reunited with his family.”

Dong’s son Yifu has called the case against his father “purely political” and the postponements an “unusual delay.”

Dong’s work is well known at home and abroad, with his writing widely perceived as advocating for progressive reform in China. He has also written for The New York Times’s Chinese-language website and won a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.

His imprisonment highlights China’s growing use of national security charges against journalists and its record of arbitrary detention. China is the world’s top jailer of journalists, with at least 52 behind bars, according to CPJ’s latest data.

CPJ will honor Dong with a 2025 International Press Freedom Award in New York in November.

China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a CPJ’s emailed request for comment.