A 78-year-old American citizen who is also a permanent resident of Hong Kong has been sentenced to life in prison by a Chinese court for espionage charges. The man, John Shing-Wan Leung, was detained on April 15, 2021, by state security authorities in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. The Intermediate People’s Court in Suzhou convicted Leung of espionage and confiscated his personal property worth 500,000 yuan ($71,797). The court's social media account released a statement announcing Leung's conviction and sentence, but it did not provide any further details about the charges against him.
Leung's sentencing comes at a time when relations between China and the United States are at their lowest point in 50 years, with both countries engaged in an intensifying rivalry over trade, technology, geopolitics, and military supremacy. This case is another example of the growing number of foreign nationals who have been caught up in China's widening crackdown on espionage under the leadership of President Xi Jinping.
China has detained numerous foreign nationals on suspicion of espionage, including a Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma in Beijing earlier this year. In another high-profile case, two Canadians were detained by Chinese authorities for nearly three years on espionage charges. Their arrest came shortly after Canada arrested a Chinese businesswoman and Huawei executive on a US warrant related to the company's business dealings in Iran. Beijing repeatedly denied that their cases were a political retaliation, but the two men were released on the same day that the businesswoman was allowed to return to China.
Last month, China passed an amendment to its counter-espionage law, which will take effect from July 1. The new legislation expands the definition of espionage to include any "documents, data, materials, or items related to national security and interests" and cyberattacks against state organs or critical information infrastructure.