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CINCINNATI (WCPO) — U.S. authorities charged a Chinese intelligence officer with attempting to steal trade secrets belonging to the Cincinnati-based GE Aviation.
Yanjun Xu, also known as Qu Hui and Zhang Hui, was extradited from Belgium to the United States Tuesday on two counts each of conspiring and attempting to commit economic espionage and theft of trade secrets, Department of Justice officials and other federal authorities announced in Cincinnati Wednesday.
WCPO first reported about the investigation Tuesday based on a sealed affidavit filed by an FBI agent.
Xu is a deputy division director in the Ministry of State Security, the Chinese intelligence agency. According to the indictment, Xu targeted aviation companies inside and outside the U.S. for trade secrets and other information since at least December 2013. Xu identified experts working for those companies and recruited them to travel to China, often under the guise of delivering a university presentation.
“This case is not an isolated incident,” Assistant Attorney General John Demers said. “It is part of an overall economic policy of developing China at American expense. We cannot tolerate a nation’s stealing our firepower and the fruits of our brainpower. We will not tolerate a nation that reaps what it does not sow.”
The investigation has been going on for more than a year, according to U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman. He said a GE Aviation employee met with Xu in China and continue to communicate with him after returning to the U.S. FBI officers obtained their communications and Xu’s communications with others related to the scheme.
Authorities arrested Xu in Belgium on April 1 and indicted by a federal grand jury in Ohio before being extradited. This is the first time a Chinese MSS officer has been extradited to the United States to face trial, Glassman said.
FBI Counterintelligence Assistant Director Bill Priestap said the case “exposes the Chinese government’s direct oversight of economic espionage against the United States.”
If convicted, Xu faces as much as 15 years in prison for conspiring and attempting to commit economic espionage and 10 years for theft of trade secrets.
“Innovation in aviation has been a hallmark of life ands industry in the United States since the Wright brothers first designed gliders in Dayton more than a century ago,” Glassman said. “U.S. aerospace companies invest decades of time and billions of dollars in research. This is the American way. In contract, according to the indictment, a Chinese intelligence officer tried to acquire the same, hard-earned innovation through theft. This case shows that federal law enforcement authorities can not only detect and disrupt such espionage, but can also catch its perpetrators.”
Xu will go on trial in federal court in Cincinnati, Glassman said.
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