A South Korean national residing in China has been detained on charges of espionage. This marks the first case a Korean was arrested under China’s revised anti-espionage law since it took effect in July last year.
The South Korean Embassy in China said on Oct. 28 that a 50-year-old man, identified as Mr. A, was taken into custody last December on suspicion of espionage. He was residing in Hefei, Anhui Province, where he worked at a local semiconductor company and lived with his wife and two daughters.
Investigators from the National Security Bureau of Hefei City barged into his home and arrested him for espionage charges on Dec. 18 last year. Mr. A was isolated and interrogated in a local hotel for more than five months. He has been held in a Hefei detention center since May 26. His family claims that he has not had access to his diabetes medication while in custody.
“We have been providing consular assistance to Mr. A and his family since we became aware of his detention in January,” said an official from the South Korean Embassy in China.
Mr. A, a former employee of Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor division, moved to China in 2016 and worked at three to four major Chinese semiconductor companies, including ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China’s largest memory chipmaker, before starting his own business. The National Security Bureau of Hefei City suspects Mr. A leaked semiconductor-related information to South Korea while working at CXMT. Mr. A maintains that he did not have access to any core semiconductor technology in China.
China’s revised anti-espionage law broadened the scope of espionage from “stealing state secrets and information” to include the transfer of any materials related to “national security and interests.” If Mr. A is sentenced to prison at trial, he will become the first Korean punished under this law. Given that no Korean has yet been convicted under China’s anti-espionage law since its initial enactment in 2014, diplomatic sources suggest that Korea should actively negotiate for a resolution, as espionage trials in China often take years, and sentences of ten or more years are not uncommon.
