A former employee working for one of the country’s state agencies has been given a rare death sentence for leaking “state secrets”, the State Security Ministry said yesterday after he was accused of handing over his USB drive to foreign spy agencies.
The case underscores China’s intense crackdown on espionage and highlights escalating tension between China and other countries on national security issues.
A man surnamed Zhang provided a “large number of top-secret and confidential state secrets to foreign spy intelligence agencies, seriously endangering China’s national security”, the ministry posted on messaging application WeChat.
Zhang was once “a core confidential personnel of a state agency” and was exposed to a large number of state secrets at work, the ministry said.
After leaving his job, Zhang became an “important target for foreign spy intelligence agencies to win over and subvert”.
“Zhang, who was weak in character and could not resist the temptation of money, became a ‘puppet’ controlled and used by the other party,” the ministry said.Zhang travelled outside of China to meet with a foreign spy surnamed Li who forced him to sign a cooperation agreement.
Li seized Zhang’s USB work flash drive and personal belongings, the ministry said.
Chinese lawmakers passed a wide-ranging update to Beijing’s anti-espionage legislation in April, banning the transfer of any information related to national security and broadening the definition of spying. — Reuters
