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 on Monday 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.
But Dong, 61, has been in custody since. Last month, his family was told that he will "face trial for espionage", the CPJ said, citing the family statement.
"His family didn't share any details about his detention with the public for more than a year, because they feared it would affect the outcome," a former colleague told AFP.
"They hoped the trumped-up charges will be dropped."
It is unclear when Dong's trial will take place.
Under Chinese law, someone convicted of espionage can be jailed for three to 10 years for less severe cases or receive heavy punishment including life imprisonment for serious cases.
Calls by AFP to the Guangming Daily office and the state prosecutor's office in Beijing went unanswered.
Dong's work has been published in the Chinese editions of The New York Times and the Financial Times.
He won the prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 2006-2007. He was a visiting fellow at Keio University in Japan in 2010 and a visiting professor at Hokkaido University in 2014.
"Chinese authorities must immediately and unconditionally release... Dong Yuyu and allow journalists to do their jobs reporting on China's domestic and foreign affairs," said CPJ's China representative Iris Hsu.
"Speaking to foreign diplomats is crucial to journalists covering international news," Hsu added.
"Going as far as trying Dong for espionage is absurd and cruel."
Civil liberties and freedom of expression have dramatically receded in China under President Xi Jinping's decade-long tenure.
The Communist Party maintains tight restrictions on domestic media outlets and Chinese nationals that work with foreign outlets are routinely harassed.
China is the second-worst country for jailing media workers -- after Iran -- with 48 journalists behind bars as of December, according to a CPJ ranking.
Citizen journalist Zhang Zhan was detained in May 2020 for her coverage of China's initial response to the Covid outbreak in Wuhan.
And earlier this month, two prominent Chinese human rights lawyers, including one who had called for Xi to resign, were jailed for more than a decade.
China charges Taiwanese man with 'secession'
Beijing (AFP) April 25, 2023 -
A Taiwanese man held by Chinese authorities for eight months was charged with "secession" by prosecutors on Tuesday, a move Taipei condemned as a rights violation meant to "create fear".
Beijing has ramped up pressure on Taiwan -- including by arresting several Taiwanese people -- since President Tsai Ing-wen's 2016 election because she regards the island as an independent nation and not part of "one China".
Yang Chih-yuan was arrested and charged with secession by prosecutors in the eastern Chinese city Wenzhou, China's Supreme People's Procuratorate said.
"The case is under further processing," the state prosecutor's office added in a post on social media, without providing further details.
Yang, 33, is vice chair of a minor political party that advocates for Taiwan's independence, and he once ran unsuccessfully for the democratic island's parliament, according to Taiwanese media.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), Taiwan's top China policy-making body, said Yang has been detained since August last year.
Beijing has not responded to repeated calls for his release, it added.
"The government stresses again that Yang is innocent and urges the Chinese Communist Party to release him so he can return to Taiwan as soon as possible," MAC said in a statement.
"The Chinese side's arbitrary arrests of Taiwanese people seriously hurt the rights and interests of our people and create fear".
The council also urged Taiwanese people to "cautiously evaluate the risk" of going to China in light of its "random violations of personal safety."
China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its territory and has vowed to seize it one day, by force if necessary.
Among the most high-profile arrests was of democracy activist Lee Ming-che, who was jailed in China for five years on a national security conviction before his release last year.
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