China’s foreign ministry said it is still verifying information regarding the arrest in Ukraine of two Chinese nationals accused of espionage.
The father and son are suspected of spying on Ukraine’s Neptune anti-ship missile program. They were detained by Ukrainian security services.
Mao Ning, spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry, said the “lawful rights and interests of Chinese nationals need to be safeguarded” about the two men at her press briefing on Thursday, July 10.
China says it is not involved in the Ukraine war and does not provide weapons to either side. But the two countries have deepened their strategic partnership during the war.
Beijing has played a vital role in supporting the Russian economy through Western sanctions via large-scale purchases of oil from Moscow.
The arrest of the alleged spies raises fresh questions about Chinese involvement in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Beijing’s purported neutrality in the conflict.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said its counterintelligence team had caught the alleged spies “red-handed” during the transfer of secret documents from a Ukrainian citizen.
One of the Chinese men is a 24-year-old former student at a technical university in Kyiv, from which he was told to leave in 2023 for poor academic performance, the SBU said. He stayed in Kyiv.
His father is a permanent resident of China “but periodically visited Ukraine to personally coordinate his son’s intelligence work,” the SBU said.
The son was allegedly tasked with securing technical documentation for the production of Ukrainian Neptunes, so he attempted to recruit a Ukrainian citizen working on their development.
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
The post China Reacts After Ukraine Arrests Alleged Spies appeared first on Newsweek.
