Scientist executed in 2016 for spying, documentary reveals
Details released of Huang Yu, a researcher in a communication project who sold ‘core secrets’
Authorities in Beijing have revealed that a Chinese scientist who was convicted in 2015 of selling state secrets to foreign spy agencies was executed in 2016, one of several “shocking” spy cases.
The death sentence and execution were disclosed in a new documentary produced by the Ministry of State Security, China’s top counter-espionage agency, which profiled 10 prominent spy cases from the past.
The documentary – Led by Innovation, National Security
Sharpens the Sword – which was aired on Sunday by state broadcaster CCTV and has been posted to the ministry’s social media page, was part of a campaign to mark the annual National Security Education Day.
The event, which is promoted by various local governments, including Hong Kong and Macau, is also intended to remind the public to remain vigilant about national security threats and report suspicious acts.
According to the documentary, Huang Yu, then a researcher at a top secret communication system development project, sent a note to “the website of a certain country’s spy agency” containing classified Chinese military codes.
Huang was bitter after being removed from a unit that was working on the project because of poor work performance and had indicated he wanted to defect, the report said.
After the authenticity of the codes had been confirmed, Huang was recruited by the unnamed foreign spy agency and given training in Hong Kong and Bangkok. The documentary said he had not only sold “core secrets” through his work, but also duped his wife – an employee at the same institution – into copying confidential material so he could pass it on for additional payments.
Huang was said to have leaked “a shocking amount” of confidential information about the communication systems used by the Communist Party, government agencies, the military and industries such as finance and telecoms. These included design, technical specifications, secret algorithms, source codes and programmes, the documentary said.
Huang was handed the maximum penalty for spying that caused “serious harm” to China’s national security and was executed in May 2016.
The documentary also revealed new details about a former researcher from Taiwan who had been stealing secrets from the mainland while based in the Czech Republic. Cheng Yu-chin, who was sentenced in 2022 to seven years in prison for espionage, “long had Taiwan independence ideas” and had been recruited by Taiwan’s intelligence agency while studying for his PhD in Prague, the programme said.
Cheng had been paid NT$2.76 million (HK$669,400) by the Taiwanese government to steal intelligence-related research reports and identify potential infiltration targets during multiple visits to the mainland, according to the documentary.
Cheng had previously worked as an assistant to Cho Jung-tai, the former secretary general of the Taiwan cabinet, who has been selected to be the island’s next premier.
The documentary also profiled the case of Lee Henely Hu Xiang, a businessman from Belize who was sentenced in 2021 to 11 years in prison for helping to fund the Hong Kong protests, as well as the cases of the “two Michaels” – Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig – who were detained in China in 2018, in apparent retaliation for the arrest in Vancouver of Meng Wanzhou.
Meng, the former chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies, had been detained in Canada on a US warrant, which the documentary said showed how China had fought the West’s long-arm jurisdiction and efforts to undermine the country’s political stability.
Quoting media reports that Spavor reached a C$7 million (HK$40 million) settlement with the Canadian government in March this year, the documentary said Canada’s “slander” in labelling their cases as “arbitrary detentions” had been “self-defeating”.
The documentary concluded with what Chinese regulators have called a “rectification” of Shanghai-based consultancy firm Capvision Partners.
The due-diligence company had been raided by authorities last year over national security risks in areas such as defence, technology, energy and resources, and medicine.