WASHINGTON: The United States said Thursday it was "deeply concerned" by the 12-year jail term handed earlier this week to Chinese "cyber-dissident" Huang Qi and called for his immediate release.

Huang ran a website called "64 Tianwang" -- named after the bloody June 4, 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protesters -- that reported on sensitive topics including human rights and local corruption. It is blocked in mainland China.

On Monday, he was convicted of "leaking national state secrets and providing state secrets to foreign entities" and handed the tough sentence -- one of the harshest handed down to a dissident since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, according to court records.

"The United States is deeply concerned by the sentencing of online activist Huang Qi to 12 years in prison," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.

"We call on China to immediately release Mr. Huang, and to allow him access to his family, medical care, and legal counsel as soon as possible," she said, also calling on Beijing to "end undue restrictions" on his relatives' movements.

"The imprisonment of Huang Qi underscores China's continued repression of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including free speech. We urge the Chinese government to uphold its international commitments related to fair trial guarantees and the rule of law."

Huang's website was awarded a Reporters Without Borders prize in November 2016. A few weeks later, he was detained in his hometown of Chengdu, according to Amnesty International.

His work has repeatedly drawn the ire of Chinese authorities.

In 2009, he was sentenced to three years in prison after campaigning for parents of children killed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which left nearly 87,000 people dead or missing.

Five years later, Huang and at least three citizen journalists who contributed to 64 Tianwang were detained by police after the site reported on a woman who set herself on fire in Tiananmen Square. —AFP