Man held in eastern China on national security, overseas collusion charges
- The person, surnamed Ma, is said to be a 37-year-old IT company department head who has been in custody since April 25
- He is accused of colluding with overseas anti-China forces to incite secession and subvert state power
A man is in custody in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, accused of activities endangering national security, state media reported on Tuesday.
The man, surnamed Ma, has been held by the Hangzhou state security bureau in Zhejiang province under “criminal coercive measures” since April 25, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Legal Daily later identified Ma as a 37-year-old man from Wenzhou, also in Zhejiang.
In addition, the report accused him of colluding with overseas anti-China forces and using the internet to incite secession and subversion of state power.
“The actions by Ma constituted serious threats to national security and the social stability of our country,” the report said.
“The relevant departments have launched an investigation in accordance with the law and his crimes will be thoroughly investigated.”
Citing unnamed sources, state-controlled Global Times newspaper identified Ma as “the director of the hardware research and development department of an IT company”.
According to the Legal Daily report, Ma had taken steps to establish an “interim parliament”, “assigned individuals to draft the so-called ‘legal system’” and “declared [his intention] to leverage external forces to overthrow the Chinese government”.
All three reports made clear the man’s name had three characters, ruling out Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group Holding, which is headquartered in Hangzhou. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
The company’s shares fell 9 per cent on Tuesday, following the initial CCTV report but recovered after the clarification.
According to Global Times, affiliated with Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, the man had been working with “outside anti-China forces since March 2022, with the incitement of an anti-China figure”.
He used social media to “spread rumours and disinformation and release so-called independence declaration to split the country and subvert the state”, the report said. He was also accused of trying to incite university students to smear China, it added.
China’s criminal law does not specify what constitutes criminal activities endangering national security, but penalties for inciting to subvert the state and split the country include life imprisonment.
The provincial capital’s former party chief, Zhou Jiangyong, was arrested last year over allegations of corruption and supporting “disorderly expansion” of unspecified private companies.
Ex-Communist Party chief of Hangzhou to face trial on bribery charges
Zhou’s trial was expected soon, state news agency Xinhua reported last month. His fall from grace came in the middle of Beijing’s regulatory crackdown on big tech companies, including Alibaba.
In the face of unprecedented challenges at home and abroad, mainland authorities have stepped up their crackdown on national security threats in the lead-up to the sweeping leadership reshuffle at the 20th Communist Party national congress later this year.
With China’s relations with the US and the West in rapid decline amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, Beijing has become increasingly vocal in its concerns about any attempts to instigate a “colour revolution” and regime change.
Chinese diplomats, including President Xi Jinping’s top foreign policy aide Yang Jiechi, have urged Washington to stick to its commitments about not seeking a new cold war, not seeking to change China’s system, not targeting China with its alliance system and not supporting “Taiwan independence”.
