Tokyo CNN —China has formally arrested a Japanese man who was detained in March, according to officials from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.
The arrest of the Japanese national, who was reportedly an employee of a Tokyo-based pharmaceutical firm, could further rattle foreign businesses in China, which have reported feeling more unsettled this year amid a crackdown on international consulting firms on national security grounds.
According to Japanese public broadcaster NHK, the man was an employee of drugmaker Astellas Pharma and was detained in March by Chinese security authorities in Beijing on suspicion of violating the country’s criminal law and anti-espionage law.
In May, state security authorities said they had raided several offices of Capvision, an advisory network.
The issue has been cited as headache for foreign businesses, some of which were already having trouble convincing workers to relocate to China.
Persons:
Hirokazu Matsuno, Japan’s MOFA, Mao Ning, “, ”, Weeks, Bain, — CNN’s Michelle Toh, Sophie Jeong, Mengchen Zhang
Organizations:
Tokyo CNN, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Embassy, NHK, drugmaker, Pharma, CNN, Foreign Ministry, Ministry of State Security, Mintz Group, American Chamber of Commerce, China’s Commerce Ministry, State Administration of Foreign Exchange
Locations:
China, Tokyo, Beijing, MOFA, Shanghai, Hong Kong