A Chinese secret service agent was sentenced in the United States on Thursday to 20 years in prison for attempting to steal technology from US and French aerospace companies, the Justice Department announced.
Xu Yanjun was found guilty in November 2021 of, beginning in 2013, attempting to obtain information on China’s behalf about various aerospace companies, including US General Electric Aviation and France’s Safran, which collaborated with GE on engine development.
The agent of the Chinese Ministry of State Security identified the experts hired by these two companies and took the professionals to China, under the pretext of participating in academic conferences, paying their travel expenses.
Arrested in 2018 in Belgium, he was allegedly lured as part of a counterintelligence operation, thinking he was seeing a GE employee, before being extradited to the US in the same year.
“Xu targeted US airlines, recruited employees to travel to China, and solicited confidential information, all on behalf of the Government of the People’s Republic of China,” the US Department of Justice said in a statement.
Prosecutor Kenneth Parker said: “This case sends a clear signal that we will hold accountable anyone who tries to steal American trade secrets,” he said.
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Source: TSF
