The Chinese Foreign Ministry today said a Japanese pharmaceuticals executive arrested over a year ago recently was charged with espionage.
Details of the charges were not provided.
Japan-based Astellas Pharma said yesterday that one of its Japanese employees detained since March 2023 on suspicion of spying had been indicted.
Astellas Pharma, the Japanese government and the Chinese regime have not identified the detainee other than to say that he is in his fifties, but media have named him as Hiroshi Nishiyama and said he had been working in China for over 20 years and served as a senior official of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China.
Astellas Pharma announced the arrest shortly after it occurred and said it would continue operations in China.
But the case has had a chilling effect on Japanese commercial activity in China, with investment dropping and Japanese expatriates leaving.
The case also has become a major sticking point in relations between the Chinese and Japanese governments, which are strained at the best of times.
The Chinese regime has a history of detaining local and foreign employees of multinational corporations on trumped-up grounds, including for espionage.
Given the utter lack of judicial independence in China, charges inevitably result in convictions.
Such cases have been relatively uncommon.
But concerns about arbitrary arrest of foreign businesspeople have been heightened by the sweeping anti-espionage law that went into force in July 2023.
Multinationals and their personnel who visit China should be extremely careful not to breach the regime’s concept of state secrets, however nebulous that may be.
Multinationals should not send anyone to China who the regime might have a pretext to detain.
Personnel while in China should avoid infractions or indiscretions of any kind.
Tensions between China and Western governments should be monitored constantly.
