A Chinese engineer was sentenced to eight years in prison in the United States on Wednesday for providing Beijing with information on profiles of American experts with the aim of recruiting them.
Arrived in 2013 on American soil on a student visa, Ji Chaoqun was accused of identifying American scientists and engineers likely to be recruited by the Chinese intelligence services.
He was arrested in September 2018 for having provided these services with information on the profile of eight people, all naturalized Americans and from China or Taiwan, and some of whom collaborated with the defense sector in the United States.
He was found guilty in September of acting unlawfully as an agent of a foreign government and making false statements, following a two-week trial in Chicago.
According to the US Department of Justice, Ji Chaoqun acted under the direction of Xu Yanjun, a Chinese intelligence agent sentenced to 20 years in prison in the United States for attempting to steal technologies from American and French aerospace companies.
This agent 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.
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