Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
CHINA HAS SENTENCED a 78-year-old US citizen to life in prison for espionage.
John Shing-wan Leung, an American passport holder and Hong Kong permanent resident, “was found guilty of espionage, sentenced to life imprisonment, deprived of political rights for life”, said the statement from the Intermediate People’s Court in the eastern city of Suzhou.
Suzhou authorities “took compulsory measures according to the law” against 78-year-old Leung in April 2021, it said, without specifying when he had been taken into custody.
The US embassy in Beijing did not immediately reply to an AFP request for comment.
The court statement provided no further details on the charges, and closed door trials are routine in China for sensitive cases.
Such heavy sentences are relatively rare for foreign citizens in China.
The jailing is likely to further damage relations with Washington, which are already severely strained.
In April, China approved an amendment to its anti-espionage law, broadening its scope by widening the definition of spying and banning the transfer of any data related to what the authorities define as national security.
The same month authorities formally charged a prominent Chinese journalist with spying, more than a year after he was detained while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat, a media rights group said.
Dong Yuyu, a senior columnist at the Communist Party newspaper Guangming Daily, was detained in February 2022 along with the diplomat at a Beijing restaurant, according to a statement issued by his family and seen by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The diplomat was released after a few hours of questioning, the Japanese foreign ministry said last year.
In February a Japanese man was sentenced to 12 years in prison in China for espionage, according to Kyodo News.
Several high profile cases of foreigners being detained have damaged ties between China and Western countries over the last few years.
In 2019, Chinese-born Australian writer Yang Jun was arrested on allegations of spying.
Australia called last week for another one of its nationals — jailed journalist Cheng Lei — to be reunited with her family after 1,000 days in detention.
She was accused of “supplying state secrets overseas”.
Days after the arrest in Canada of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in 2018, China detained two Canadians — former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor.
Beijing was accused of using the two men in a bout of “hostage diplomacy” to pressure Ottawa into releasing Meng.
The Canadian pair were set free hours after a deal was struck to release Meng.
© Agence France-Presse
So your guaranteed remission regardless of behavior inside ? That’s absolutely ridiculous. Remission should be used in extreme circumstances where a prisoner has really showed signs of turning their life around. What’s the point in a criminal been good when there is no punishment.
I think between suspended sentences, serious sentences been run concurrently and light sentences its clear there is not enough space in prisons.
Time for a new one demolish the Dublin ones, sell the lands for housing and fund a new super max in the middle of nowhere and send them all there.
@Lie Smeller: The land around Mountjoy would be worth a fortune, turn the main building into a new hotel and the grounds can be used for apartment blocks… the price of the sale would cover a new prison in the midlands somewhere..
@Dotty Dunleary: a new hotel? Sher there’s already a hotel on that land
@Dotty Dunleary: I think that the main building is already a hotel.
Not surprising really. The whole criminal justice system in this country is broken. Criminals constantly being re-released to inflict more pain amd suffering on society, so why would they worry about attacking prisoner officers. There is no real deterrent.
@kevin: We need at least one really tough prison like Alcatraz for the incorrigibles. It needs to be under the control of “The Dept. of Defence” and well beyond the influence of the Bleeding hearts P.C brigade!!
Utterly outdated and inadequate facility, not enough room to segregate and separate Ireland’s most Unwanted!
The Prison officers in that place aren’t paid enough by half to deal with the worst of society!
Send in the Army!
Stats, lies, stats, lies? It’s how ya tell em.
It makes me smile. the people who take these well paid jobs and then complain.
@Sean Conway: so you think that if someone is“well paid “ by your standards it is ok to be assaulted or seriously injured?
@Sean Conway: Why don’t you take one of these ‘well paid jobs’ ?we’ll see how long it will take before that smile is wiped off your face when reality bites.
@Sean Conway: starting salary is very low until you move up the scale if you do and can you stick it.
@Sean Conway: I’m sure that smile would be on the other side of your face if you were to take up work in the prison service.
@Sean Conway:
Can we take then assume nurses, ambulance crew, fire fighters, children detention staff, bus drivers, taxi drivers and everyone else who works frontline with the public should put up and shut up too?
Unbelievable!
@Sean Conway: if that makes you smile then you’re one sick puppy
@Sean Conway: As somebody with family and friends who work there you’d be a lot better doing some research before making comments like that.
If you think its that good the prison service is recruiting at the moment , could be your big chance to make your fortune.
@Ray Farrell: Who’s making them do it? the same goes for joining the army.
@Sean Conway: Prison Staff know there are risks involved in doing the Job. But those risks should be minimised as much as possible. And keeping an accurate record of All incidents where violence has been used against staff is part and parcel of that process.
It is the Prison Officers on the floor that are the ones have to place their own safety at risk to protect others.
And it is the Job of those in charge to enable the staff to work in an environment where there is zero tolerance to Any act of violence towards them.
@Honeybee: I am afraid that is not only reality that bites but also some inmates who are still out early because of ” good” behaviour.
@Sean Conway: it makes me smile, when idiots miss the point…
@Ray Farrell: The same thing that makes you do your job, that is if you have one. And if you do I hope your not going into a job every day where your putting yourself in danger. Just be glad that you can sleep nice and cosy in your bed at night deep in the knowledge that there are men in women in this country putting their personal safety at risk so you can stay like that.
@Sean Conway: well paid? I wouldn’t lift a finger for that kind of money. Completely underpaid dangerous job should be paid double, especially for the people in the front line, the pencil pushers not so much though!
Anyway, ludicrous statement Sean!
I worked as a corrections officer in North America for a while. I never had a problem. If you act the bol**ks and don’t treat inmates with simple respect and dignity, if you throw your weight around simply because you can, if you act like you’re something special because you wear uniform instead, then you will end up getting a hammering. I never read a prisoner’s file or asked why they lost their liberty and made no secret of the fact. I just treated the guys how I like to be treated. That’s not to say if they were breaking the rules that I wouldn’t deal with them. They recognised that and I was always fair and straight with them. I had more problems with chronic staff than I ever had with any inmate.
@Niall Sheridan: The difference between the US System and ours in how those involved in violence towards staff are treated. Assault an officer over there and you are likely to get pepper sprayed at a minimum, tazed or in extreme cases shot. The Irish Prison System has no such protocols.
@Greg Mumble: Because in Ireland Pepper Spray and Tazers are considered as Firearms under the Law and Prison staff have not been issued with either. Even the issue of Asp Batons are only issued to Staff on external duties such as Prisoner escorts, they are not currently issued to Staff on internal duties.
@Greg Mumble: They are not allowed the use of tazers in prisons here in case you tazer somebody and its triggers a reaction to their heart. That would be terrible.
have your say