Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping, has raised the issue of Japanese detainees in the past. Photo: EPA-EFE
Source:
https://scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3011019/chinese-court-hands-japanese-man-15-year-jail-sentence-spying Diplomacy
Chinese court hands Japanese man 15-year jail sentence for spying
- Hot spring development firm boss sentenced for stealing state secrets two years after he was detained in Hainan province
- Last week another Japanese man held at the same time was given a 5½-year sentence by a court in Shandong
At least nine Japanese people have been charged with spying by China since 2015. Photo: AP
A Chinese court has sentenced a Japanese man convicted of spying to 15 years in prison, Sino-Japanese sources revealed on Monday.
The man, in his 50s, was also fined 100,000 yuan (about US$14,500) by the court in Hainan province for having illegally obtained state secrets, analysed them and disseminated them abroad, they said.
Since 2015, at least nine Japanese people have been charged in China for alleged involvement in spying activities, and this marks the seventh time a court has delivered a verdict.
The man, a director of a hot spring development consultant company in Dalian in Liaoning province, was detained in 2017 along with five other Japanese nationals while assisting in geological assessments of potential sites in Hainan and Shandong provinces.
Two of the six were formally arrested later that year accused of violating anti-espionage and national security laws, according to local media reports, while the other four were allowed to return to Japan.
The authorities had reportedly retrieved a large amount of classified information, including nearly 80 copies of maps, from the pair’s computers and other electronic devices.
Of the two who were arrested, the other man, in his 70s, was sentenced last Friday to 5½ years of imprisonment by a court in Shandong.
The issue of the Japanese detainees in China was raised at the summit level when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Beijing in October 2017 and stated that the Japanese government was not engaged in spying activities in the country.