Chinese in California nabbed for theft of trade secrets

Chenguang Gong is suspected of providing China with blueprints for a space-based missile detector

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A Chinese-born American researcher has been arrested on charges of stealing trade secrets, including technology used to detect nuclear missile launches, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

Chenguang Gong, 57, of San Jose, California, was arrested on Tuesday, the department said in a statement.

Gong, who became a US citizen in 2011, is accused of transferring more than 3,600 files from the research and development company where he briefly worked to personal storage devices.

The company was not identified.

According to court documents, the files included blueprints for infrared sensors used in space-based systems to detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles.

The files also allegedly included blueprints for sensors designed to enable US military aircraft to detect heat-seeking missiles and take countermeasures.

US Attorney Martin Estrada said Gong “had previously sought to provide the People’s Republic of China with information to aid its military.”

“We know that foreign actors, including the PRC, are actively seeking to steal our technology, but we will remain vigilant against this threat by safeguarding the innovations of American businesses and researchers,” Estrada said.

According to court documents, Gong worked at the unidentified company from January 2023 to April 2023 as a circuit design manager for infrared sensors.

The Justice Department said meanwhile that two Iranians have been charged in another case involving sensitive technology.

Abolfazi Bazzazi, 79, and his son Mohammad Resa Bazzazi, 43, were indicted in New York on charges of violating export laws by conspiring between 2008 and 2019 to export equipment used in the aerospace industry to Iran.