Chinese scientist Hongjin Tan gets two-year prison sentence for stealing trade secrets from US energy company
- Hongjin Tan, who worked on the research and development of next-generation battery technologies for Phillips 66, had pleaded guilty
- US Justice Department also said a University of Tennessee engineering teacher has been charged with concealing his China ties while receiving NASA funding
A Chinese scientist has been sentenced to two years in prison for stealing trade secrets said to be worth US$1 billion from the American petroleum company where he worked.
The announcement on Thursday by the US Justice Department is the latest chapter in a string of prosecutions against engineers and scientists linked to Beijing. This comes as US-China tensions mount and Washington adopts a “whole-of-society” approach in countering Beijing’s acquisition of US technology.
Chinese national Hongjin Tan, 36, pleaded guilty in November and admitted to copying and downloading proprietary material without his employer’s permission.
In addition to his sentence, Tan was ordered to pay US$150,000 to his former employer, energy company Phillips 66. Federal Judge Gregory Frizzell also ordered Tan to spend three years in “supervised release” – a period of heightened oversight by a parole officer – after he gets out of prison.
“Unscrupulous individuals like Hongjin Tan seek to steal American trade secrets to take home to China so they can replicate our technology,” US Attorney Trent Shores said in a statement. “United States Attorneys from coast stand ready to combat China’s economic aggression that criminally threatens American industry.”