In this Sankei Shimbun essay, Deputy Editorial Board Chairman Rui Sasaki examines the detention in China of Professor Yuan Keqin of Hokkaido University of Education on suspicion of violating the Anti-Espionage Law. He argues that China’s arbitrary detentions are spreading serious distrust across academic exchange, business, and the entire bilateral relationship between Japan and China.

May 12, 2020
Those involved in travel between Japan and China will no longer be able to conduct academic research or business with peace of mind.
Seeds of distrust are spreading between the two countries.
China itself should realize that this is damaging its own national interest.
The following is from an essay by Deputy Editorial Board Chairman Rui Sasaki, published in today’s Sankei Shimbun under the title “An Unacceptable Arbitrary Detention.”
Rui Sasaki is one of the finest active journalists.
Professor Yuan Keqin, 64, of Hokkaido University of Education remains imprisoned.
He is suspected of violating China’s domestic Anti-Espionage Law.
It was only in late March this year, ten months after he disappeared in May last year, that the Chinese government first admitted that it was questioning Mr. Yuan.
They say it is a suspicion of espionage, but nothing has been made clear.
If this is a peremptory detention in the name of the rule of law, it is a grave human rights violation.
Without disclosing evidence, who can possibly trust them?
The opaque detention of Mr. Yuan will cast a dark shadow not only over academic exchange between Japan and China, but also over the entire bilateral relationship.
Mr. Yuan specializes in the history of East Asian international politics and is known as an activist who devoted himself to the pro-democracy movement during the Tiananmen Square incident in China in 1989.
After graduating from Jilin University in China, he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees at Hitotsubashi University, and from 1994 he taught exclusively at Hokkaido University of Education for a quarter of a century.
He was captivated by Japan, and especially by the great natural beauty of Hokkaido.
Above all, in Japan, freedom of speech and academic freedom are guaranteed.
“My father liked this freedom,” his eldest daughter, Yuan Kei, who lives in Canada, told us in an interview by international telephone.
Ms. Kei, a medical worker, has been spending extremely busy days dealing with the novel coronavirus.
Ms. Kei also said, “Continuing to detain him without disclosing any evidence makes me think only that they are trying to make my father guilty according to some kind of scenario.”
Mr. Yuan is said to have been walking along a road with his wife after attending the funeral of his biological mother in Jilin Province when he was forced into a car by “someone.”
According to Ms. Kei and other family members, who heard the story from his wife after she was later released, the couple at first could not understand what had happened to them.
They learned for the first time, after being taken into a facility, that they had been forcibly taken away by the public security authorities.
At a press conference on March 26, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang stated that Mr. Yuan was “confessing fully to the facts of the crime,” and claimed that “the evidence is certain.”
He said that the procuratorial authorities are now proceeding with an investigation to determine whether to indict him, and added that “his rights under criminal procedure are fully guaranteed.”
What is particularly malicious is the method by which they first released his wife on condition of cooperation with the investigation, turning her into an operative.
After returning to Japan, his wife took Mr. Yuan’s computer, mobile phone, and other items back to China and submitted them to the authorities.
She falsely reported to Hokkaido University of Education that he was absent because of medical treatment.
His wife, who is said to have felt pangs of conscience, eventually told Mr. Yuan’s family everything in full, and the fact of his detention became known even though the authorities had not acknowledged it.
What must be noted is that detentions by China of Japanese citizens and Chinese residents in Japan began to stand out from 2014, when the Anti-Espionage Law came into force.
Does this reflect the intentions of the Xi Jinping leadership, which is strengthening social control?
In addition to Japanese citizens such as a Hokkaido University professor and an Itochu Corporation employee, many foreigners, including Canadians, have also been detained.
The acts of espionage stipulated by the Anti-Espionage Law include, in addition to “providing state secrets to foreign organizations” and the like, a clause covering “other” acts, making arbitrary application by the authorities possible.
One cannot know what will be deemed an act of espionage.
Those involved in travel between Japan and China will no longer be able to conduct academic research or business with peace of mind.
Seeds of distrust are spreading between the two countries.
China itself should realize that this is damaging its own national interest.