Chinese authorities are investigating two Canadians citizens on suspicion of stealing state secrets about China's military and national defense research, state media said, Reuters reported.
The official Xinhua News Agency said in a one-paragraph report late Monday that Kevin Garratt and Julia Dawn Garratt were being investigated by the state security bureau in China's northeastern city of Dandong that borders North Korea, according to Reuters. The offense of stealing state secrets is a serious crime in China.
The Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail said the Garratts are a Vancouver couple who have lived in China since 1984 and have run a popular coffee shop in Dandong since 2008, Reuters reported.
The Garratt's western-style coffee shop has a view of traffic flowing across the Yalu River that divides China and North Korea, The Globe & Mail newspaper said, according to Reuters. The couple also had a side business helping intrepid people plan tours to North Korea, it added.
"Kevin Garratt and his wife ... are suspected of collecting and stealing intelligence materials related to Chinese military targets and important Chinese national defence scientific research programs, and engaging in activities that endanger China's national security," the Foreign Ministry said in a short statement, according to Reuters.
Neither the Foreign Ministry nor Xinhua said if the couple had been detained, although the ministry said the Canadian embassy in Beijing was notified on Monday and that the couple's "various rights have been fully guaranteed," Reuters reported.
The accusations against the couple came nearly a week after Canada accused a China-sponsored hacker of infiltrating Canada's National Research Council, the country's top research and development organization, according to Reuters.
China's Foreign Ministry expressed strong displeasure over the allegation, urging Canada to withdraw the "groundless" accusation, Reuters reported.
Canada's foreign affairs department said it was aware of reports that the two Canadians had been detained and was trying get more information, according to Reuters. The department said consular officials were ready to provide assistance.
