Diplomat Blackmailed by Chinese Agents

A Japanese consular official who committed suicide in Shanghai in May 2004 was blackmailed by Chinese intelligence agents who set him up with a woman in an attempt to obtain classified information, Japan’s foreign minister said.

The Foreign Ministry had previously said only that the official’s death could be attributed an unspecified diplomatic incident with a Chinese intelligence official.

“They approached him, offering to arrange a sexy woman for him,” Foreign Affairs Minister Taro Aso said in a speech. “Then he was blackmailed to give away secret codes for classified information. It is clear from a suicide note he left.”