China reduces sentence of journalist to 5 years from 7

An imprisoned 71-year-old Chinese journalist has had her sentence reduced to five years from seven following an appeal, her lawyer said today.
Gao Yu appealed her April conviction for leaking state secrets at a closed hearing on Tuesday at Beijing's high court. Her lawyer Shang Baojun said the court announced today that her sentence would be reduced.
Gao was convicted of sharing with an overseas news magazine a document detailing the Communist Party leadership's resolve to aggressively target constitutionality, press freedoms and groups that seek to change society but operate outside the party.
The magazine, Mingjing News, has said Gao did not provide the document, and her lawyers said they presented evidence that Gao was not the source of the report at the appeal.

Foreign governments and human rights groups have denounced the verdict again Gao as politically driven and urged authorities to release the elderly journalist, who is in poor health with heart problems.
The letter said "Dear Comrade Xi Jinping, we are loyal

Communist Party members. We write this letter asking you to resign from all party and state leadership positions," it said.
"We make this request out of consideration for the Party cause, out of consideration for the nation and its people-and also out of consideration for your personal safety and that of your family," the letter published by a host of foreign media including the BBC said.

The letter was posted earlier this month on the state- backed website, creating an uproar in the media circles here as state-run media operate under tightly-controlled supervision of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC).
A well-known Chinese dissident Wen Yunchao living in the US said three members of his family including his parents and brother, living in China's Guangdong Province, had also been detained in connection with the letter, the BBC report said.
His relatives were held after a US-based blogger Liu Gang said in an online post Wen was also behind the letter. Since then his family is being harassed, Wen said.