Tokyo prosecutors on Wednesday indicted a Chinese researcher at Japan's national institute of industrial technology for allegedly leaking data to a Chinese company.
Quan Hengdao, 59, who was arrested in June on suspicion of violating the law prohibiting unfair competition, was fired on Wednesday by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.
It was not immediately clear whether Quan has admitted to the allegation.
According to the written indictment and other sources, Quan allegedly sent an email containing data on fluorine compounds to a chemical product manufacturing company in Beijing in April 2018. At that time he had access trade secrets at the institute based in Ibaraki Prefecture.
Fluorine compounds are used as an insulating gas and employed as an insulator in electrical equipment such as transformers.
Quan was hired by the Japanese institute in 2002. He also taught at the Beijing Institute of Technology, which is believed to have links to China's military, according to investigative sources and Chinese websites.
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