Malign Activity: Chinese Intelligence Operatives Uncovered In The U.S.

By Paul Davis

On November 16th, the U.S. Justice Department announced that a Chinese spy was sentenced to 20 years in prison for espionage.

The spy, Yanjun Xu, was the first Chinese government intelligence officer to be extradited to the United States. He was tried in Cincinnati.

Xu, who held the rank of deputy division director at the Chinese Ministry State Security (MSS), Communist China’s intelligence and security agency, was convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit economic espionage, conspiracy to commit trade theft, and other related charges in November 2021.

“As proven at trial, the defendant used a range of techniques to attempt to steal technology and proprietary information from companies based in both the U.S. and abroad,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland at the announcement. “Today’s sentence demonstrates the seriousness of those crimes and the Justice Department’s determination to investigate and prosecute efforts by the Chinese government, or any foreign power, to threaten our economy and national security.”

According to the Justice Department, in March of 2017, a GE Aviation employee in Cincinnati was asked to give a report to a university in China. The employee traveled to China, gave the report and was introduced to Xu. Xu paid the employee’s travel expenses as well as a stipend.

yanjun-xu

Later, the FBI posed as the employee and communicated with Xu. Xu requested system specifications and design process ...