Canadian couple suspected of stealing state secrets in China
Unclear if Kevin Garratt and Julia Dawn Garratt have been detained but the Canadian nationals investigated for alleged theft of information regarding military and national defence research
China is investigating two Canadian nationals for suspected theft of state secrets involving military and national defence research, the official Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.
Xinhua identified the two Canadians as Kevin Garratt and Julia Dawn Garratt, but did not say whether they had been detained. It said the State Security Bureau of Dandong City, in northeast China's Liaoning Province, was investigating the case.
Canadian newspaper The Globe & Mail said the Vancouver couple had been living in China since 1984 and opened a coffee shop called Peter's Coffee House in Dandong in 2008. The couple previously worked as teachers in southern China.
The western-style coffee shop had a view of traffic flowing across the China-North Korea border, said the newspaper, adding the couple had a side business helping holidaymakers plan tours to North Korea across the Yalu River.
It said the immediate whereabouts of the Garratts was unknown and calls to their coffee shop went unanswered.
The investigation comes a week after Canada took the unusual step of singling out Chinese hackers for attacking a key computer network and lodged a protest with Beijing. Edited by Steve Wilson
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