Freed Japan-China friendship group head says charges false

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — The former head of a Japan-China friendship group who recently returned to Japan from six years in a Beijing prison for what he said were false spying charges says he still hopes to see China become a global leader but with better treatment of human rights. Hideji Suzuki, former president of the Japan-China Youth Exchange Association, says he devoted himself to promoting friendship between the two countries and visited China more than 200 times since the 1980s. He says he was seized at Beijing’s airport in July 2016 and indicted a year later on charges of being a representative of a Japanese intelligence agency and discussing North Korea with a senior Japanese diplomat.