Chinese officials at an international arms fair in the Middle East have been accused of spying on exhibitors in a 'brazen' manner.
Exhibitors said the mainland visitors to the IDEX 97 fair in Abu Dhabi stole display videos, filmed activities and made sketches of technology at American and European stalls on arms systems, barred by law from sale to China.
Although visitors routinely inspect the latest in other countries' arms technology, the activities of Chinese visitors apparently angered other participants.
A representative of Lockheed Martin, who manned a stall showing one of the Pentagon's anti-missile systems, told the Washington Times that a Chinese team had stolen a publicity tape from his video machine.
'We got hit up by a Chinese video team. One guy filmed the stand while the other one must have ejected the video. We didn't notice it until after it was gone,' he said.
An executive from the Litton Systems company, which was showing a battlefield command system, said he had to push a group of Chinese visitors away from his stall after they refused to stop filming the equipment displays.
