Thread by @JChengWSJ

Hiroshi Nishiyama, a prominent Japanese businessman, spent late March wrapping up his assignment and preparing to go home. He never made it. He disappeared on what was to be his last day in China, detained for suspected espionage.
@Kubota_Yoko @miho_inada
wsj.com/articles/in-ch…

@Kubota_Yoko @miho_inada The incident is one of a string of events that have sparked new concerns among foreign companies about staff safety. In recent weeks authorities have questioned staff at Bain & Co. and detained Chinese employees of American due diligence firm Mintz Group.
wsj.com/articles/in-ch…

@Kubota_Yoko @miho_inada China also passed an expansive update of an anti-espionage law that will tighten state control and raise risks that business behavior is misconstrued as spycraft. Japanese companies face the added challenge of growing tensions between Beijing and Tokyo.
wsj.com/articles/in-ch…

@Kubota_Yoko @miho_inada The Japanese embassy has enhanced its warnings around “so-called espionage acts," saying Chinese authorities could take issue with obtaining maps without permission, while warning phones, computers, email and messaging apps like WeChat could be tapped.
wsj.com/articles/in-ch…

@Kubota_Yoko @miho_inada A researcher at a foreign trading firm said the company has become more cautious about communicating with people who might be linked to the Communist Party. Instead, it plans to gather information about trends in the country by attending more conferences.
wsj.com/articles/in-ch…

@Kubota_Yoko @miho_inada According to Japan’s Foreign Ministry, Hiroshi Nishiyama, the recently detained Japanese executive at Astellas Pharma, is the 17th Japanese citizen detained by Chinese intelligence since 2015.
wsj.com/articles/in-ch…

@Kubota_Yoko @miho_inada China is the second biggest overseas destination for Japanese nationals after the U.S., with more than 102,000 Japanese living in the country and more than 31,000 Japanese companies operating in China, including Toyota, Hitachi and Panasonic.
wsj.com/articles/in-ch…

@Kubota_Yoko @miho_inada Four employees of one Japanese company were detained in China in 2017 while surveying for hot springs. One was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The reason they were targeted remains unclear. "How could we explain to their families if that happened again?”
wsj.com/articles/in-ch…

@Kubota_Yoko @miho_inada Mr. Nishiyama, who served as a vice chairman of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China, was based in China for some 20 years for Astellas, overseeing importing and exporting drug ingredients, selling imported drugs and setting up factories.
wsj.com/articles/in-ch…

@Kubota_Yoko @miho_inada Shortly before his planned return to Japan, Mr. Nishiyama posted on his WeChat account an 11th-century Chinese poem which ends with a friend leaving on horseback in a snowstorm: “The next morning, the horse’s footprints were gone." It was his last post.
wsj.com/articles/in-ch…