British businessman Ian Stones was in 2022 sentenced to five years in a Chinese prison on espionage charges, Beijing has confirmed.
China’s foreign ministry said on Friday that he had been convicted of providing intelligence to external forces and began his sentence around two years ago.
Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin did not elaborate about the charges and the news follows both the UK and American governments warning about the risk of detention under Chinese law.
A new version of the law that took effect July 1 last year has heightened concerns about operating in China. In 2023, a Japanese pharmaceutical company employee was detained on suspicion of spying.
Mr Stones's case was not publicly known until it was reported on Thursday by The Wall Street Journal. This said that Mr Stones is about 70 years old and has worked in China for 40 years.
His employers included General Motors and Pfizer before he set up up a consulting firm, Navisino Partners, about 15 years ago.
Foreign business organisations and governments called for greater clarity last year on what foreign firms are allowed to do under what is now known as the anti-espionage law.
Of particular concern are tighter restrictions on the transfer of data to other parties, and what data is considered related to national security under the law.
Raids on the offices of three foreign companies, two consultancies and one due diligence firm have further unnerved the business community.
The British government warns about the risk of arbitrary detention in China and the broad scope of the national security law.
"You may be detained without having intended to break the law," it says in its foreign travel advice for the country.
The US travel advisory says that Chinese authorities "appear to have broad discretion to deem a wide range of documents, data, statistics or materials as state secrets and to detain and prosecute foreign nationals for alleged espionage".
It says that foreigners who have been detained for alleged national security law violations include businesspeople, former government officials, academics, journalists and relatives of Chinese involved in legal disputes.
Mr Stones appealed against his conviction, but a court upheld the original ruling in September, Mr Wang said.
He said that the case was handled "in accordance with the law, ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of both Chinese and foreign parties involved".
