Dong Yuyu, who often met with foreign diplomats, academics and journalists in the course of his work, was detained on February 2022 while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat at a hotel in Beijing. His family was notified in March 2023 that his case would be sent to trial, though the charges remain unclear.
You can accuse anyone of anything and start a trial, that’s how the justice system works.
After more than a year in detention, the charges are still unclear. This appears to be another trial behind closed doors, which means that not even his laywer will know what exactly the charges are. It’s hard to defend oneself if you don’t know what you are accused of.