China investigates Canadian couple for ‘stealing secrets’

China is investigating a Canadian couple who ran a coffee shop on the Chinese border with North Korea for the suspected theft of military and intelligence information and for threatening national security, China's foreign ministry said today.

The official Xinhua news agency identified the two as Kevin Garratt and Julia Dawn Garratt. In a brief report, Xinhua said the State Security Bureau of Dandong city in northeast Liaoning province was investigating the case, adding it involved the stealing of state secrets.

Neither the foreign ministry nor Xinhua said if the couple had been detained, although the ministry said the Canadian embassy in Beijing was notified yesterday and that the couple’s “various rights have been fully guaranteed”.

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, a gateway to North Korea, in 2008. The couple previously worked as teachers in southern China.

It said the whereabouts of the Garratts was unknown. A family friend said the Garratts had three children.

“Kevin Garratt and his wife ... are suspected of collecting and stealing intelligence materials related to Chinese military targets and important Chinese national defence scientific research programs, and engaging in activities that endanger China’s national security,” the foreign ministry said in a short statement.

The Canadian embassy said it was aware of reports that two Canadians had been “detained” in China and was gathering information.

“Our consular officials stand ready to provide assistance as required,” embassy spokeswoman Mary Anne Dehler said.

China’s state secrets law is notoriously broad, covering everything from industry data to the exact birth dates of state leaders. In severe cases, the theft of state secrets is punishable with life in prison or the death penalty.

Beijing is also sensitive about its relationship with North Korea, whose ruined economy is partly kept afloat with Chinese aid. Information in China can be labelled a state secret retroactively.

The announcement of the investigation into the Garratts 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.

Canadian officials have said "a highly sophisticated Chinese state-sponsored actor" broke into the National Research Council, the government's leading research body, which works with big firms such as aircraft and train maker Bombardier Inc. . In response, Beijing accused Canada of making irresponsible accusations that lacked credible evidence.

The Garratt's western-style coffee shop has a view of traffic flowing across the Yalu River that divides China and North Korea, The Globe & Mail newspaper said. The couple also had a side business helping people plan tours to North Korea, it added.

The coffee shop’s website says the cafe is only metres from the Friendship Bridge that spans the river, calling the venue the “perfect stop off while enroute to or returning from the Hermit Kingdom”. The shop also runs a weekly “English Corner” conversation club, where Chinese can practice speaking English.

The newspaper said the shop was named after the couple’s youngest son.

Agencies