An employee of a Japanese pharmaceutical company who was convicted in China on espionage charges has been found to have provided information on China to a Japanese government agency.
Yonhap News reported this on July 20, citing Kyodo News and Yomiuri Shimbun. On July 16, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court sentenced a Japanese man in his 60s, a resident employee of Astellas, a Japanese pharmaceutical company, to three years and six months in prison on espionage charges. However, the court did not specify the details of the charges.
Subsequently, the written verdict specifying the charges was made public. The court ultimately determined that the man's actions constituted espionage activities in violation of China's Anti-Espionage Law. However, the verdict did not disclose exactly what information the defendant had provided. It also did not clearly state which Japanese intelligence agency had commissioned him.
In the past, there have been cases where, in espionage convictions of Japanese nationals in China, the connection with the Japanese Public Security Intelligence Agency was raised as an issue. This has led to speculation that the same agency may be involved in this case as well. It is reported that the defendant admitted to the charges during the trial and has decided not to appeal.
Previously, on July 18, Chinese intelligence authorities claimed that they had uncovered a case in which rare earth elements from China, subject to export controls, were to be smuggled out by disguising their composition under the instructions of foreign spies.
On that day, the Chinese Ministry of State Security stated in a notice posted on its social media WeChat account, "In recent years, foreign espionage agencies and their agents have colluded with domestic illegal elements to plot subversive activities and attempted to steal our rare earth-related products by using postal methods, causing serious harm to our national security."
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