China sentences US citizen to life in prison on spying charges

Now, 78-year-old American citizen has been sentenced by a Chinese court to life in prison on spine charges. John Leung, who is also a Hong Kong permanent resident, was detained two years ago by state security authorities. Authorities in Hong Kong have been notified and are now following up. China hasn't provided any further details. The sentencing comes as relations between Beijing and Washington are at their lowest point in 50 years. Ivan Watson joins us now. Ivan, when I read this story, I'm embarrassed to say I hadn't even and didn't recognize his name.

What more do we know about him and the charges against him? Right. Well, we really didn't know that this American citizen had been in Chinese custody for more than two years until the court in Suzhou issued this statement today announcing that he had been sentenced to life imprisonment on the charge of espionage. They identified the man as John Xinhuang Leung, 78 years old, a U.S. citizen, also a Hong Kong permanent resident, who had actually been detained since April 15th of 2021. We don't have really further details on that, except that the Hong Kong government, the highest security official in the Hong Kong government, did clarify in a press conference that the administration here in Hong Kong knew about this case going back to 2021, but did not add any further comments on this. Now, we've reached out to the U.

S. Embassy, and they also say that they're not going to comment on this case due to privacy considerations and that they have no greater priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas. I would like to add that just last week, the U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, he met for hours face-to-face with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Vienna, and they had discussed a whole wide range of issues.

But among the issues that Sullivan reportedly brought up were the cases of Americans allegedly wrongfully detained in Chinese custody, Mark Sweden, Kylie, and David Lin. We did not hear the name of this individual who's just received a life sentence in China. One final detail is that the Chinese government has been tightening the rules for what it defines as espionage. It passed a law making it much stricter some years ago, and just last month has tightened those rules even more, making it potentially very, very dangerous to hold on to any documents even any papers that the authorities could judge to be a national security matter. Julia. Yeah, I mean, there's so much detail in that. You know what's quite fascinating and what stands out to me actually is what you said about those talks.

Several hours on one occasion, I think I read eight hours' worth of talks between high-level officials and the choice here, Jake Sullivan, rather than the U.S. Secretary of State. Interesting timing, important breakthrough, given that I just said in your introduction, a 50-year low in relations, important to be around a table and talking, I think, at this moment for many reasons. Absolutely. And also the fact that, I mean, this was on Friday, that both the Chinese side and the White House put out remarkably similar statements, meaning that they, for once, these two governments, their delegations were able to come to agreement, and not just about that, but also to agree that they would maintain this important strategic channel of communication, and one step further, that they would build on the engagement between President Biden and President Xi that was reached back in Bali on the sidelines of the G20 summit in November of last year. That's not the kind of language that we have heard in months ever since that Chinese surveillance balloon was detected over the U.

S. and then shot down by the U.S. and that basically scuppered a planned visit by the U.S. Secretary of State, Blinken, to Beijing. It could be a sign, these talks last week, that the world's two largest economies are headed towards some kind of common ground, which would probably be welcome if you're talking about stability around the world.

Absolutely. Watch this space and agree on the remarkably similar statements to movement here, clearly, I think. Thank you.

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