US nabs alleged China spy
Intelligence officer accused of trying to steal aviation tech secrets
WASHINGTON: US authorities said they have arrested a Chinese intelligence agent after he was extradited from Belgium, accusing him of a state-sponsored effort to steal American trade secrets.
The Justice Department said Xu Yanjun, an official of the Ministry of State Security, plotted since 2013 to obtain trade secrets of GE Aviation and other companies.
An indictment suggested he was lured to Belgium in a counter-intelligence operation and arrested under a US warrant on April 1.
The announcement came with tensions escalating between Washington and Beijing over geopolitical issues, trade tensions, hacking and corporate espionage.
Xu was handed over by Belgium to the United States on Tuesday, the first time ever that a Chinese intelligence officer was extradited from another country.
“This unprecedented extradition of a Chinese intelligence officer exposes the Chinese government’s direct oversight of economic espionage against the United States,” said FBI assistant director Bill Priestap.
Last week Vice President Mike Pence painted China as a virtual enemy of the United States on all fronts, saying it was trying to undermine President Donald Trump.
“What the Russians are doing pales in comparison to what China is doing across this country,” Pence said in a speech.
Justice officials cast the arrest of Xu as part of the global fight against China’s alleged campaign to steal US economic secrets.
“This case is not an isolated incident. It is part of an overall economic policy of developing China at American expense,” said Assistant Attorney General John Demers.
“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 indictment said Xu was the deputy division director with the Ministry of State Security’s Jiangsu State Security Department.
The MSS is the Chinese state’s main foreign intelligence and coun- ter intelligence bureau.
Xu allegedly ran a five-year operation trying to steal trade secrets from Cincinnati, Ohio-based GE Aviation, one of the world’s leading aircraft engine manufacturers, and other aviation companies, including US military suppliers.
He sought to recruit sources in and around the company and bring them to China, to woo their support and gain inside technology information from GE.
In one instance, Xu targeted data on the design and composite materials of GE engine rotor blades, sending an informant specific questions he wanted answered, according to intercepted communications cited in the indictment.