China hands death sentence to state secrets leaker

China has handed down a rare death sentence to a former state agency employee for leaking classified information to foreign intelligence agencies.

Beijing's Ministry of State Security said in a statement on Wednesday that the man, identified only by the surname Zhang, had been recruited after he had left his position, in which he had access to "a large number of state secrets".

The statement said Zhang had been a member of the "core confidential personnel of a state agency" without specifying which agency had employed him.

He leaked a "large number of top-secret and confidential state secrets to foreign spy intelligence agencies, seriously endangering China's national security", it continued.

Zhang was reportedly lured overseas with promises of "experiencing exotic customs" and, once there, began cooperating as a double agent. A foreign spy surnamed Li forced him to sign a cooperation agreement and seized Zhang's USB work flash drive and personal belongings, the ministry said.

"Zhang, who was weak in character and could not resist the temptation of money, became a 'puppet' controlled and used by the other party," the statement continued.

Intensifying focus

It was not specified which foreign agency was involved in the case. A colleague of Zhang, surnamed Zhu, was sentenced to six years in prison for assisting him. The ministry provided no details on the timing of the execution.

The case highlights China's intensifying focus on national security under President Xi Jinping, who has ramped up warnings about foreign powers allegedly targeting Chinese citizens.

Revised anti-espionage legislation passed this year extended the definition of espionage to encompass any information linked to national security, not only state secrets.

China and Western powers have long traded accusations of spying but only recently started to disclose details of alleged individual cases .

In June, China accused Britain's MI6 of recruiting a couple who worked for the central government. Earlier this year, a Beijing court handed Australian writer Yang Hengjun a suspended death sentence on espionage charges, a decision the Australian government described as "harrowing".

In August, United States prosecutors charged a New York resident who took part in the Chinese pro-democracy movement that resulted in the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown with spying for China.

The US Central Intelligence Agency last month posted instructions in Chinese on social media on how to securely contact the agency.