Chinese spy caught in ‘rare’ sting after ‘plot to steal US trade secrets’
Yanjun Xu, a senior officer with China’s Ministry of State Security, is accused of seeking to steal trade secrets from leading defence aviation firms, top Justice Department officials said
US agents have arrested a top Beijing intelligence official for allegedly attempting to steal trade secrets from GE Aviation and other US aerospace companies after luring the suspect to Belgium in what the US Justice Department called “an unprecedented extradition”.
Xu Yanjun, who also uses the names Qu Hui and Zhang Hui, was extradited to the US on Tuesday with assistance from Belgian authorities for seeking “to steal trade secrets and other sensitive information from an American company that leads the way in aerospace”, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said in a Justice Department announcement on Wednesday.
Xu, a senior officer with China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), appeared in federal court in Cincinnati on Wednesday, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. He could be given a prison sentence of up to 25 years in addition to fines if charged and convicted, the Justice Department said.
We cannot tolerate a nation stealing our firepower and the fruits of our brainpower. We will not tolerate a nation that reaps what it does not sow
“Beginning in at least December 2013 and continuing until his arrest, Xu targeted certain companies inside and outside the United States that are recognised as leaders in the aviation field,” the Justice Department said in its announcement of the arrest.
“He identified experts who worked for these companies and recruited them to travel to China, often initially under the guise of asking them to deliver a university presentation.”
Responsible for intelligence gathering and conducting investigations on issues related to interaction between Chinese and foreign entities, MSS is roughly equivalent to America’s National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Xu is a deputy division director with the organisation’s Jiangsu provincial division.
Xu’s case was announced just hours after FBI Director Christopher Wray said China was a greater security threat to the US than Russia, the latest warning about Beijing from government officials including Vice President Mike Pence, who said last week that China seeks to undermine American interests geopolitically, economically and militarily.