China is investigating a United States-based firm for ‘illegal activities’, a state spokesperson said on Monday, after the firm charged authorities of imprisoning five local employees and shutting down its Beijing office.
The New York-based Mintz Group is “suspected of illegal operations”, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said, adding that “the appropriate case is now under investigation”.
Mao did not share other details about the investigation into Mintz Group, which specializes in investigations into fraud, corruption, and workplace mischief allegations, as well as background reviews.
The company said on Friday that authorities had “imprisoned the five staff in Mintz Group’s Beijing office, all of them Chinese nationals, and have shut our operations there”. The company has “retained legal counsel to engage with the authorities and support our people and their families”, it added. Mintz did not comment yet on Beijing’s announcement Monday.
Mintz Group has offices in 18 locations, including Washington.
Its Asia head, Randal Phillips, had said in 2017 that the United States should address structural imbalances in trade stemming from Chinese policies.
Phillips — formerly a chief representative for the US’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in China — also attested before the congressional US-China Economic and Security Review Commission in 2018 on Beijing’s efforts to exercise international influence. He is now based in Singapore, according to the group’s website.
The arrests come in front of some of the worst US-China ties in decades, as the two forces fight over everything from trade to human rights. Tensions erupted in February after the United States shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon, which China urged was a weather monitoring device.
