AKIPRESS.COM - A veteran Chinese journalist has been sentenced to seven years in prison for “leaking state secrets” in what activists described as the latest chapter in an unyielding Communist Party offensive against its opponents.

Gao Yu, a 71-year-old writer who has spent decades chronicling Chinese politics, was arrested in April last year and faced trial in November, reports The Telegraph. 

On Friday morning the Beijing-based writer was given a seven year sentence during a brief hearing at the city's Number Three Intermediate Court.

Ms Gao was also stripped of her political rights for one year, according to a post on the court’s official Weibo account.

The charges relate to a sensitive Communist Party document that the journalist was accused of sending to an overseas news website.