China urged Astellas employee to take plea bargain on spy charge: source

BEIJING -- Chinese authorities encouraged a detained Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma to confess to espionage charges in exchange for a reduced sentence, a source told Nikkei.

The Astellas employee was sentenced Wednesday to three and a half years in prison by a Beijing court. According to a source familiar with the case, the court ruled that he had passed on Chinese internal information at the request of Japanese intelligence in return for compensation, which constituted espionage.