On Monday China said that it was imprisoning a Japanese national on suspicion of spying after Tokyo demanded China to release one of its citizens.
Relevant Chinese authorities took criminal coercive measures this month against a Japanese citizen, in accordance with the law.”
Mao Ning-foreign ministry spokesperson told a regular press briefing.
Mao added that this Japanese citizen is suspected of engaging in espionage activities, in violation of the criminal law and the anti-espionage law of the People’s Republic of China. China is a country under the rule of law. All foreign nationals in China must abide by Chinese laws, and offenders are prosecuted according to law.
Hirokazu Matsuno, a Japanese government spokesman told reporters earlier on Monday that Tokyo’s embassy in China had reported: “this month that a Japanese man in his fifties was detained in Beijing”.
He provided no details on the man’s identity, his apparent offense, or when he had been captured. But he added ever since we learned about this case, the Japanese government has been strongly urging the immediate release of this Japanese national. He added that Tokyo was also aiming for consular access to the man, who has not been named publicly.
The man is an employee of the Japanese pharmaceutical firm Astellas, a spokesman for the company told AFP, refusing to provide any further details.
The firm was working with Tokyo’s foreign ministry to collect more information and take appropriate action, he added. State media characterized the man as a veteran expat in China who had worked in the country for two decades.
Kyodo News Agency reported he was imprisoned just before his planned return to Japan this month, and that he had previously been “a senior executive of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China”. Beijing on Monday said that similar cases have happened constantly among Japanese citizens in recent years.
Japan should better educate and warn its citizens.”
Mao added.
In October 2019, Chinese authorities detained a Japanese professor, reportedly on suspicion of spying. He was released and returned to Japan the following month. And in March 2020, China’s foreign ministry said it had arrested a Chinese man reportedly working as a university professor in Japan who they claimed had admitted to intelligence.
