CHINA-CANADA-NORTH KOREA: ESPIONAGE
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China's official news agency Xinhua, on August 5, 2014, reported that the State Security Bureau of Dandong city in Liaoning province was investigating two Canadian nationals, Kevin Garratt and Julia Dawn Garratt, on charges of stealing state secrets. Kevin Garratt and Julia Dawn Garratt have been living since 1984 in Dandong, a city on China's border with North Korea and a major trading and transit point for trade between China and North Korea. The couple, who had previously worked as teachers in southern China, had opened a coffee shop called Peter's Coffee House in Dandong in 2008.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in a brief statement said:"Kevin Garratt and his wife ... are suspected of collecting and stealing intelligence materials related to Chinese military targets and important Chinese national defense scientific research programs, and engaging in activities that endanger China's national security." It did not disclose whether the couple had been detained.
Some analysts note that the investigation into the Garratts, who have three children, 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.
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