Washington condemns a Chinese engineer to eight years in prison in a case of economic espionage
A Chinese engineer was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in prison in the United States for providing Beijing with information about American experts with the aim of recruiting them.
In 2013, Ji Chaoqun arrived in the US on a student visa and was accused of knowing US scientists and engineers who might be recruited by the Chinese intelligence service.
He was arrested in September 2018 because he gave information about eight naturalized US of Chinese or Taiwanese origin, some of whom were collaborators with the defense sector in the United States.
He was convicted in September of acting unlawfully as an agent of a foreign government and making misleading statements, at the conclusion of a two-week trial in Chicago.
According to the US Department of Justice, Ji Chaoqun acted under the supervision of Xu Bangun, a Chinese intelligence agent convicted of 20 years in prison in the United States for attempting to steal technology from American and French airlines.
This client was convicted in November 2021 for seeking, starting in 2013, to obtain information for China regarding several airlines, including the American General Electric Aviation.
