Hamartia Antidote
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Yanjun Xu asked an FBI agent he thought was a GE Aviation employee for design details for a composite aircraft engine fan module that only GE has developed, authorities said. (Butler County, Ohio, jail/AP )
The first Chinese intelligence officer ever extradited to the United States to face trial was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison for trying to steal secrets about aircraft engines from General Electric, among other crimes.
Justice Department officials touted the conviction of Yanjun Xu as evidence not just of China’s ambitious efforts to use government spies to engage in espionage that benefits Chinese firms, but of the U.S. government’s growing attempts to find, arrest and prosecute such operatives.
“As long as the Chinese government continues to break our laws and threaten American industry and institutions, the FBI will work with its partners across the globe to bring those responsible to justice,” FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said in a written statement.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the evidence in the case showed the Chinese intelligence officer used “a range of techniques to attempt to steal technology and proprietary information from companies based in both the U.S. and abroad.”
In March 2017, a GE Aviation employee was asked to give a report at a university in China. During that trip, the employee was introduced to Xu, who began corresponding with the person he thought was the employee. In fact, the FBI had secretly taken over the GE employee’s side of the conversation.
In 2018, Xu requested design details for a composite aircraft engine fan module, which only GE has developed, according to authorities. Xu also asked the person he thought was the employee to send a copy of the file directory for his company computer, and traveled with cash to Belgium to meet and make the payment. Upon arrival, he was arrested, and eventually deported to the United States.
In recent years, the U.S. government has amped up its efforts to charge Chinese intelligence officers who allegedly engage in economic espionage, meddle with U.S. politics or harass Chinese Americans to return to their native country.
Those law enforcement efforts, sometimes referred to as “name and shame” cases, have met with limited success, however, because the people accused often are in China and cannot be extradited to face the charges. In the Xu case, however, FBI agents were able to lure him to a third country that has an extradition treaty with the United States.
In addition to the GE case, Xu acted as a handler for a Chinese citizen who worked on behalf of that country while living in Chicago. That person was able to join the U.S. Army, and volunteered to take pictures of aircraft carriers for China’s spy agency.
Xu’s trial also showed he took part in a separate espionage scheme involving a French aircraft manufacturer. Xu arranged for malware to be planted on the computer of an employee of that company, in the hope that it would help infiltrate the company’s computer network in France.
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