China jails Japanese Itochu employee for three years on national security charges

An employee of Japanese corporation Itochu, who was detained in China in 2018 on suspicion of harming national security, has been sentenced to three years in prison, Japanese foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Tuesday.

A district court in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou handed down the sentence to the employee on October 15, according to a source close to Sino-Japanese ties.

He also had 150,000 yuan (US$21,300) confiscated as part of the penalty.

It was not immediately known what he had done in China to be convicted of harming the country’s national security.

Motegi confirmed a news report about the worker’s sentencing while speaking to reporters in Tokyo.