John Shing-wan Leung, a permanent resident of Hong Kong, was convicted of espionage and sentenced to life in prison on Monday by the Intermediate People's Court in the eastern city of Suzhou, according to a statement posted on the court's social media account.
According to the brief statement, Mr. Leung was arrested on April 15, 2021, by public security agencies in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province. However, the statement did not provide details of his crimes.
The court also confiscated personal assets worth 500,000 yuan, equivalent to about 72,000 USD.
Chinese government agencies and state media have not released details of Mr. Leung’s sentence or the court proceedings that led to his conviction. National security trials are typically handled in secret and have a conviction rate of as high as 99 percent, according to observers.
The US Embassy in Beijing said on Monday it was aware of Mr. Leung's conviction.
“The State Department has no greater priority than the safety of US citizens abroad,” a US Embassy spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. “For privacy reasons, we are unable to comment further.”
CNN has also requested comment from the US State Department .
On Monday, Hong Kong's (China) Security Secretary, Mr. Chris Tang, said that the city's government had been informed by Chinese authorities about Mr. Leung's arrest in 2021.
Also on Monday, the US State Department said it was “aware of the conviction of a US citizen in the People's Republic of China on espionage charges”.
US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel did not go into further details, citing “privacy concerns,” but stressed that the US government would “provide full and appropriate assistance,” including consular access, to every US citizen abroad.
Asked whether Mr Leung had been designated as having been unlawfully detained, Mr Patel said, “generally speaking, in terms of designating this as unlawfully detained, decisions are still under discussion.”
Mr. Leung was sentenced at a time when US-China relations are at their lowest point in half a century; amid growing competition in trade, technology, geopolitics and military superiority between the two countries.
The sentence also comes at a time when US and Chinese officials are resuming high-level interactions, after a suspected Chinese spy balloon disrupted efforts to mend ties in early 2023.
At least three other US citizens have been publicly detained in China – Kai Li, Mark Swidan and David Lin. All three have been designated by the US State Department as being unlawfully detained.
In March, Chinese authorities detained a Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma in Beijing on suspicion of espionage. He was the 17th Japanese citizen to be detained in China since the anti-espionage law was introduced in 2014.
Another arrest involves two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, who have been held for three years by the Chinese government.
The arrests of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on espionage charges in late 2018 came shortly after the Canadian government arrested Chinese businesswoman and Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. arrest warrant related to the company's business activities in Iran.
Last month, the Chinese government passed a series of amendments to the country's anti-espionage law that will take effect on July 1.
The new law expands the definition of espionage from state secrets and intelligence to “documents, data, materials or objects related to national interests and security” and will include cyber attacks against state agencies or important information facilities.
Nguyen Quang Minh (according to CNN)
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