A US businesswoman has been found guilty of stealing Chinese state secrets two decades ago, according to her lawyer, as mutual spying suspicion grows between the world’s biggest economies.
Phan Phan-Gillis, more commonly known as Sandy, was sentenced at a secret trial to three and a half years in prison for espionage activities alleged to have taken place between 1995 and 1998. News of her sentencing has not been reported in China.
Ms Phan-Gillis was seized by Chinese security officials on the mainland’s border with the special administrative region of Macau two years ago while leading a Houston trade delegation that included the US city’s then acting mayor, Ed González.