BEIJING
— A Chinese court has convicted a man of spying and sentenced him to 10
years in prison for leaking classified military documents to a foreign
spy who also approached more than 50 other people around China, state
media said Monday.
The official China Daily newspaper said on its website that the man
stole secret military documents and transferred photographs and other
useful information to the foreign party. It did not say to which foreign
governments the information may have been transferred, and didn’t cite
sources for its report.
The China Daily and other official media identified the suspect by the
surname Li. They said the recipient of the documents was named Feige,
but gave no other information about the person.
The newspaper said Li also gathered information about military bases in
the southern province of Guangdong, home to China’s southern fleet that
oversees operations in the sensitive South China Sea. The report said
Feige also contacted 12 other people in Guangdong, as well as 40 other
people in the rest of China, but didn’t specify whether those people had
provided information.
Interest in the aims of China’s booming military spending has grown in
recent years, particularly among officials in the U.S., the region’s
primary military power. Taiwan, which China has threatened to use force
against to bring it under its control, and Japan are also close
observers of China’s defense outlays.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she had no
information about the report. Such cases are usually handled in secret
with little information released about them to the public.
While China’s military still lags far behind the U.S. in both funding
and technology, its spending boom comes as American defense budgets are
being slashed, leaving some nations to question Washington’s commitment
to its Asian allies, including some which have lingering disputes with
China.
President Barack Obama sought to reassure allies such as Japan and the
Philippines during a swing through the region last week. Washington is
attempting to maintain those relationships while also sustaining cordial
ties with China, a key economic partner and rising regional power.
China’s official defense spending this year grew 12.2 percent to $132
billion, continuing more than two decades of nearly unbroken
double-digit percentage increases.
That has given China the second largest defense budget after the U.S.
and has afforded it with the means to alter the balance of power in the
Asia-Pacific. Outside observers put China’s actual defense spending
significantly higher, although estimates vary widely.
