A Chinese intelligence agent was sentenced on Wednesday (November 16th) to 20 years in prison in the United States for trying to steal technology from American and French aerospace companies, the US Department of Justice announced.
Xu Yanjun was found guilty in November 2021 of having, from 2013, sought to obtain information on behalf of China on several aeronautical companies, including the American General Electric Aviation and the French Safran, which collaborated with GE on the development of an engine.
This agent of the Chinese Ministry of State Security would have identified experts employed by these companies and would have brought them to China under the pretext of university conferences, by paying them the trip.
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counterintelligence operation
Arrested in 2018 in Belgium, he had probably been lured there as part of a counterintelligence operation, thinking of meeting a GE employee, before being extradited the same year to the United States.
"
Xu targeted American aircraft companies, recruited employees to fly to China, and solicited the proprietary information they had, all on behalf of the government of the People's Republic of China
," the official said. Department of Justice in a press release.
"
This case sends a clear signal that we will hold accountable anyone who tries to steal American trade secrets
," said prosecutor Kenneth Parker.
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