Japan won't prosecute Chinese diplomat over espionage

Took a glance at the pieces of the above story, is this a Bribery case rather than espionage ?

Lol so Japan won't give up the disputed islands but they'll give up their laws and values? wtf.

I believe the suspect would have had diplomatic immunity therefore the police/prosecutors would not be able to prosecute the person and have him deported even if he was caught.

How can Japan think it can't criminally charge the Chinese diplomatic when he was just trying to facilitate a trade of agricultural product from Japan to China?

The diplomat went to the proper channel, which is your Japan Farm Ministry, and negotiated possible trades between China and Japan. The japanese government officials gave/transfered some classified document to the chinese diplomatic; maybe these documents are needed to cement these trades: like amount of certain type of agriculture items Japan can have/grow at a given time with the amount it can trade to China, or maybe even how these items are grew so China can check for safety reason..etc. But all of that was an agreement between the diplomat and the japan farm minister. In the end, the diplomat didn't force to take or steal anything that Japan that it wasn't unwilling to give.

Lol so Japan won't give up the disputed islands but they'll give up their laws and values?

There's no point because he has already gone. It would just be symbolic, and given China would almost certainly say the charges were baseless, politically-driven, etc it's probably a good idea not to give the fenqing more ammunition.

CrazyJoe: "If this happened in China, the outcome would have been much different. It tells you how weak the Noda government is."

Weak or not, the guy's no longer there so it would be a kangaroo court to 'prosecute' him. If it happened in China and the Japanese guy still foolish to be there when it was discovered, then yes, how they treated him would differ greatly to how Japan would treat the Chinese in question had they caught him.

"Li Chunguang, a 45-year-old first secretary at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo, returned to China in late May after being asked to appear before police for questioning."

Now, if you want to talk about how Japan should have taking in him for question instead of calling and asking him politely to do so (thus sending him fleeing), that's a very valid question.

@ CrazyJoe

It tells you how weak the Noda government is.

This has nothing to do about Noda. The prosecutors, not the Cabinet or Foreign Ministry, dropped any possible case in the realization that the alleged crimes, while recognized and galling, could not be prosecuted due to the official's diplomatic immunity.

Oh Japan this speaks volumes. Bend over. It's about time you realise you're not anywhere near as important as you thought you were.

Obvious next move; round up the rest of the Chinese diplomats for questioning. Then see what happens.

It is not about spying it is about politics.

There are currently about 6-8 cases around the globe at the moment involving Chinese officials and Chinese employees of US and European companies being investigated for similar actions. Passing classified or business sensitive information back to China or Chinese companies.

That's just how some people and companies do business, appears to be more prevalent in China though.

Too slow for the Japanese gestapo to question and arrest the Chinese. Nothing you can do now. But try to look if there was any bribery involved between the chinese and the department of agriculture officials. Chinese invented bribery.

Anyone who thinks China and the Chinees don't participate along with the rest of the world in industrial espionage has their head up their @ss. Be it by computer hacking or throught the front door with or with out cash it's so bl@@dy obviousness. If you have somthing to hide then your a target. It's got nothing to do with who us in charge of government. Blaming politicians for not prodecuting shows a lack of intelegence. At any rate supplying disinformation is also rampant, just look at Chineese trains crashing and buildings collapsing, we are still laughing at China.

I believe there have been similar cases in the past ... and the culprits have been allowed to return to their home country. It's easier than trying to convict someone and making a big issue out of it. Plus there is diplomatic immunity involved ... and this could get really messy if the case were brought forward in the courts. It's best all around to just let the issue drop. One thing's for certain, I doubt if the Chinese in question will be allowed to enter Japan again ...

According to investigators who spoke to Kyodo news agency, Li falsely identified himself as a professor at the University of Tokyo, submitted a document to officials in Tokyo with a false address, and renewed a foreign registration certificate in April 2008 using a false ID.

Ok maybe I am being dense here but even if the guy was trying to get secret information about how much rice Japan was planning on planting this year, why would anyone with diplomatic immunity even need to "renew" their foreign registration?

<>oooiuioio

Why wonder then how China keeps walking all over Japan. This is not how to deal with a bully. At least proceed with the charges in abstentia so then he is barred from returning.

Classified information does not leak by itself. There is a leaker and a receiver. The alleged Chinman is gone. How about tracking down the leaker!! He is 50% of the problem. Of course, this might dug up too much to suit the prosecutors.

Very questionable.

Don't diplomats have Diplomatic Immunity???

In late June, the [farm] ministry released a report stating four sets of classified documents were found to have been leaked

The alleged espionage here involves the farm ministry -- not the ministry of defense or foreign affairs. What kind of classified (sensitive?) information could the farm ministry have?

If the guy has already left, theres not much they can do. I don't think they would have done anything of the guy was still here though other than deport him. We've seen time and time again how the Japanese government bends when it comes to dealing with the Chinese.

Karma will take care of him now!

Another sad example of China the bully not trusting on free trade and open markets. Hardly a surrender of principles for the officials to decide the horse was long gone out of the barn and to not waste official time and energy on a hopefully task.

If this happened in China, the outcome would have been much different. It tells you how weak the Noda government is.

The Japanese farm ministry launched an in-house investigation in late May to look into allegations that classified documents had been leaked to the diplomat, Kyodo said.

Wow what a reshocker PRC diplomats lying, stealing and cheating! Who would of ever believed that?!

They can not create it, so they will just steal it.

If Japan started prosecuting the Chinese espionage people then it would have filled all the jails in Japan.