Japanese police have investigated a member of the Chinese Communist Party who worked as a technician in Japan for alleged unauthorized disclosure last year of data related to high-tech agriculture, sources familiar with the case said Sunday.
The former employee of an electronics parts maker in Japan, who also had ties with the People's Liberation Army, is believed to have possibly obtained the data for the Chinese government, which has been pushing to modernize the nation's agriculture to enhance food security, the sources said.
The disclosed data may contain trade secrets regulated under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, they said, adding that the police had probed the man on suspicion of violating the law, but he left Japan before the investigation could be completed.