Former US President Barack Obama, pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping, began to apply pressure on China over theft of intellectual property. Photo: AP
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https://scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3031207/chinese-professor-zhang-hao-will-lead-his-own-defence-us Diplomacy
Chinese professor Zhang Hao to lead his own defence in US economic espionage trial
- Zhang, the only one of six defendants in US, may seek to prove he took part in ‘free and open exchange of ideas’
- Prosecutors claim technology theft was channelled through Cayman Islands company
Chinese professor Zhang Hao has decided to lead his own defence in a California court. Photo: SCMP
US prosecutors say academic Zhang Hao is a spy who conspired with a colleague from the University of Southern California to steal and sell American secrets to the Chinese government and military through a shell company in the Cayman Islands.
Zhang’s lawyers will try to show at a trial set for Wednesday that his work at one of China’s most prestigious technical universities to develop radio-filtering technology used in mobile phones has always been about advancing scientific knowledge and not for the benefit of the Chinese state.
The trial comes amid a crackdown on Chinese theft of intellectual property that began during the presidency of Barack Obama – before Zhang was arrested in 2015 when he attended a conference in Los Angeles – and has escalated during Donald Trump’s trade war with China.
Zhang could face a lengthy prison term in the United States if found guilty of stealing trade secrets and a more serious charge, economic espionage. Such cases rarely go to trial, but Zhang’s is also unusual because he has chosen to defend himself before a judge in federal court in San Jose, California, instead of a jury.
The trial is expected to last a day or two, hastened by the professor’s agreement not to fight evidence against him that a federal prosecutor described as “overwhelming.”
Zhang is mounting what one legal expert called a “damage control” defence in which he has conceded evidence, including emails that the US claims contained confidential data, and admissions he made under questioning by the FBI.
“It’s pretty common to only contest elements that are reasonably defensible, to avoid inflammatory or prejudicial evidence coming in on other elements that you are going to lose anyway, but which could colour the rest of the case,” said Paul Chan, a lawyer who defends companies and individuals in trade secret cases.
The secrets Zhang allegedly stole came from a former employer, Skyworks Solutions, based in Woburn, Massachusetts, and San Jose-based Avago Technologies, which acquired Broadcom in 2015. The technology in question filters unwanted signals in mobile phones and other devices, which has become more difficult as wireless products have become ubiquitous.
Zhang went to work for Skyworks after earning his doctorate in electrical engineering at the University of Southern California in 2006. At USC, he met Wei Pang, who went on to work at Avago and, according to prosecutors, was Zhang’s key co-conspirator. Both men returned to China to teach at Tianjin University.
At Tianjin University, the professors allegedly used stolen information to refine radio filter technology, apply for patents in the US and China, and sell it through a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands.
Zhang’s work included refining radio filter technology for mobile telecommunications. Photo: Shutterstock
In 2015, prosecutor Matthew Parrella told the court that the US had built an “overwhelming case” against Zhang based on email exchanges with Pang which, in some instances, contained proprietary information from Skyworks and Avago.
The prosecution has proof of “overt act after overt act of this defendant emailing around trade secrets that he took, attempts to hide their business dealings, attempts to move the victim companies to China – it’s extremely clear”, Parrella said.
Zhang is the first of six defendants to go to trial, and probably the only one because the others are in China.
US district judge Edward Davila has yet to rule on whether Zhang’s mentor at USC, Professor Eun Sok Kim, can testify about what Zhang’s lawyers called a practice at the school’s laboratory of promoting a “free and open exchange of ideas”.
“[Zhang] may be seeking to prove that, given the USC lab’s promotion of the ‘free and open exchange of ideas,’ he had no actual intent to benefit a foreign government,” Chan said. Prosecutors must prove the benefit to secure enhanced penalties and fines under the economic espionage charge, he said.
Prosecutors have objected to the proposed testimony but have so far not objected to Zhang’s request that Kim also serve as a character witness. The professor has testified once before, in 2015 soon after Zhang was arrested, to vouch for his former student’s release on bail.
Kim said Zhang was a “reliable, conscientious person who never showed any sign of a deception”.
US prosecutors say Zhang conspired with a colleague from the University of Southern California to steal and sell secrets to China. Photo: Shutterstock
“He worked with me for four years as he pursued his PhD, so I know him quite well, his personal integrity and his work ethic and his disposition and life objectives – at least as far as I can tell while he was a student with me,” he said. “So I had a pretty good opinion about him.”