WASHINGTON: A Chinese intelligence officer was punished at the US Federal Court on Friday the economic espionage in an effort allegedly supported by the state to steal technology from US and French aerospace companies, the Ministry of Justice said.
Xu Yanjun, an official at the Jiangsu Province Foreign Intelligence Office from the State Security Ministry, was found guilty in the Cincinnati Court with two calculations of conspiring and tried to conduct economic espionage, and three counts related to theft of trade secrets.
Economic espionage costs bring a maximum of 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $ 5 million, while other charges of each carrying 10 years in prison.
Xu is one of 11 Chinese citizens, including two intelligence officers, named October 2018 charges for involvement in a five-year scheme to steal technology from Cincinnati-based GE Aviation, one of the world’s leading Safran machinery manufacturers, and the French Safran Group, and that works with GE on machine development.
“Xu tried to steal technology related to the fans of the GE exclusive composite aircraft, which no other companies in the world that can be duplicate, to benefit China,” said the Ministry of Justice in a statement.
Xu, using various aliases, “experts who identified who worked for the company and recruited them to travel to China,” added the statement.
He was arrested in April 2018 in Belgium, where he seemed to have been captivated in counter-intelligence operations – he had planned to secretly meet GE employees on the way.
He was extradited to the United States in October 2018 to face the trial.
The 2018 charges were named 10 other legs in the operation, including two Jiangsu security officials – who seemed to have worked under XU – six hackers, and two French company employees.
None of the 10 were arrested.
The charges prepared efforts to use malware and phishing techniques to hack the target computer and delete data on machines and parts.
The Justice Department said at that time a Chinese Aerospace company belonging to China has tried to develop machines such as GE to use on aircraft made in China.
After the arrest of Xu, China said the United States “made something from thin air.”