China sentences 78-year-old US citizen to life in prison on spying charges

China on Monday sentenced a 78-year-old U.S. citizen to life in prison on spying charges.

Details of the charges against John Shing-Wan Leung, who also holds permanent residency in Hong Kong, have not been publicly released. But what is essentially a life sentence could exacerbate already strained relations between the world's two biggest economies. 

Leung was detained April 15, 2021, by China’s counterintelligence agency in the southeastern city of Suzhou, according to an official statement. Such investigations and trials are held behind closed doors and little information is generally released, according to the Associated Press.

Relations between Washington and Beijing amid disputes over spying, trade, technology, human rights and China’s increasingly aggressive territorial claims on Taiwan and the South China Sea.

The sentencing comes as President Biden travels to Pacific Rim countries and Hiroshima, Japan, for the Group of Seven major industrial nations summit.