Elderly US citizen receives life sentence in China for espionage.

An elderly American citizen and Hong Kong permanent resident, John Shing-Wan Leung, has been sentenced to life in prison by a Chinese court on spying charges. Leung was detained in April 2021 by state security authorities in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, and was convicted of espionage. The court also confiscated personal property worth 500,000 yuan ($71,797). Leung is among a growing number of foreign nationals to have been ensnared in China’s widening crackdown on espionage under leader Xi Jinping. The sentencing comes at a time when relations between Beijing and Washington are at their lowest point in half a century.