China denies arrested citizens are ?spies?

China on Thursday refuted Indian reports that three Chinese nationals arrested in India for traveling without proper documents were spies.

China claimed that the arrested Chinese citizens were ?tourists? and had entered India ?by mistake?.

?Related reports do not reflect reality. Recently, some Chinese tourists were on holiday on the Nepal-India border and mistakenly entered India and were detained by Indian police,? Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said, according to reports from Beijing.

He said the Chinese citizens were not spies nor involved with money laundering.

Hong said the Chinese embassy in India was finding out the details and said Beijing expected India to ?deal appropriately with the situation?.

The three Chinese nationals, including a woman, were arrested from Uttar Pradesh, close to India-Nepal border.

They claimed to be employees of Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies.