A jury in Cincinnati has convicted a Chinese intelligence agent over his role in a scheme to recruit spies and steal sensitive American aviation technology for Beijing.
Xu Yanjun, a deputy division director at the Chinese Ministry of State Security, Beijing’s top intelligence agency, was found guilty on all counts, including conspiring to and attempting to commit economic espionage and stealing trade secrets, according to the Justice Department.
He was the first-ever Chinese intelligence agent to be extradited to the United States to stand trial. Xu was transferred from Belgium in 2018 after an engineer he targeted for recruitment cooperated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to lure him to the European country.
The companies Xu targeted included GE Aviation, an Ohio-headquartered company that has designed an exclusive composite aircraft engine fan that no other company in the world has. Xu had attempted to steal the proprietary engine fan technology to benefit the Chinese state, Vipal Patel, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, said on Friday.
Developing the aviation sector forms part of Beijing’s “Made in China 2025” industrial plan, with aims to transform the country into a high-tech manufacturing powerhouse by the year 2025. A Chinese military specialist testified during the trial in October that aviation expansion “has actively been a key priority for decades, and a key source of frustration” for the regime, according to local media reports.
Xu had pleaded not guilty but was convicted of all charges following a nearly three-week-long trial. He now faces up to 60 years of prison term in total with an over $5 million fine.