Chinese Foreign Ministry confirms six Japanese detained

China committed to cracking down on national security threats: experts

China on Monday confirmed that six Japanese citizens are being investigated for alleged illegal activities, which experts said shows China's commitment to cracking down on activities that threaten national security.

A relevant Chinese department is investigating the Japanese citizens in connection with illegal activities in China. China has informed Japanese consular authorities, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing on Monday.

Hua's remarks come after Japan's Kyodo News agency cited an unidentified Japanese government source as saying that the six men had possibly been detained on suspicion of espionage.

Chinese authorities in East China's Shandong Province and South China's Hainan Province detained the six men in March. Three of those detained in Hainan are in their 20s to 50s and are suspected of being a threat to national security. The report said the three entered the province for work related to hot springs development.

The Consulate-General of Japan in Qingdao, Shandong declined to comment when reached by the Global Times.

The Asahi Shimbun reported that the six men include employees of companies involved in underground exploration.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga confirmed that the six men had been detained, but declined to comment on allegations of espionage, AFP reported. Suga told a regular press conference that the government is "discussing the issue through our diplomatic missions abroad."

"Both of the provinces have big Chinese military bases. Shandong has close economic relations with Japan and is also an important military base for the construction of aircraft carriers. Hainan is also the country's most important military base in the South China Sea," Zhao Hongrui, dean of the School of Law at Harbin Institute of Technology, told the Global Times.

China has stepped up its crackdown activities that may threaten national security with the passage of several laws in recent years, including the Anti-Espionage Law and the Anti-Terrorism Law. Anti-espionage work is a common practice and disclosing the information to the public shows China's strong determination to safeguard national security, while sending a message to Japan that China has a tough attitude and the ability to crack down on spying activities, Zhao said.

This is not the first time that Japanese nationals have been detained in China on suspicion of illegal activities.

In 2015, four Japanese were detained on suspicion of spying, with two of them admitting they were sent by Japanese intelligence to search for military information. In 2016, China reportedly detained a Japanese official from a Japan-China exchange group for his alleged involvement in spying activities, but the Tokyo-based group denies any links with the man.