Written by by Amanda Lee at scmp.com
On Sunday, state broadcaster CCTV published a series of claims by the Ministry of State Security about spying cases, including an individual identified only as Cheng, the deputy manager of an unnamed rare earth company, who was jailed for 11 and half years for “illegally providing state secrets” and bribery.
The report said Cheng, who was also fined 100,000 yuan (US$13,800) and had personal property worth 900,000 yuan confiscated, had supplied information about rare earths that the government was collecting to a contact working for the Shanghai subsidiary of an unnamed foreign non-ferrous metals company.
The second individual, identified only as Ye, was also jailed for 11 years last November and had personal property worth 500,000 yuan confiscated after being found guilty by the Nanchang Intermediate People’s Court in Jiangxi province of being “bought off by overseas forces and illegally providing state secrets”.
“In recent years, critical minerals have become a new area of strategic competition between major global powers. As one of the key mineral resources, rare earths not only contribute to high-quality economic development, but are also closely related to national security,” CCTV’s report said.