A Chinese government intelligence officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for committing financial espionage and attempting to steal trade secrets from GE Aviation, an aerospace-oriented subsidiary of General Electric. Yanjun Xu, 42, is the first Chinese intelligence officer ever extradited to the US to stand trial. He was convicted in a federal court in Cincinnati on November 5, 2021, of multiple charges related to attempted financial espionage and theft of trade secrets. Court documents show he targeted GE Aviation to steal technology related to GE Aviation’s complex aircraft engine fan assembly – which has not been copied by any other company in the world – to benefit the Chinese military and aerospace sector. “As demonstrated at trial, the defendant, an intelligence officer of the Chinese government, used a range of techniques to attempt to steal technology and proprietary information from companies located both in the U.S. and abroad,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a release type. Chinese officials previously claimed the charges against Xu were a “pure fabrication”. The General Electric logo is seen through a magnifying glass in front of the words Aviation, Energy, Healthcare displayed in this picture taken November 9, 2021. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Reuters Photos) CHINA INVITES CHARGES AGAINST SPY CONVICTED OF ATTEMPTED TO STEAL US TRADE SECRETS According to the Justice Department, Xu’s career as an intelligence officer began in 2003 and rose to the rank of deputy division director at China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), the intelligence and security agency for China. Xu’s efforts to obtain trade secrets from US companies recognized as leaders in the aviation sector began in 2013. He used pseudonyms and company faces to deceive the employees of these companies, recruited them to travel to China under the pretense of giving presentations at a university, and paid for their travel expenses. Xu and others at MSS hacked or copied the computers of air force employees while being unwittingly taken to dinner by MSS. TWO CHINESE SPIES CHARGED WITH ALLEGEDLY OVERVIEWING US HUAWEI INVESTIGATION Xu would also openly talk about efforts to obtain information about US military programs in addition to commercial aviation trade secrets in conversations with his assets and targets. His espionage efforts extended to US allies as he recruited assets inside a manufacturing facility in China owned by French aerospace company Safran, according to a court filing. The assets installed malware in an attempt to infiltrate the company’s network in France. He was also involved in the handling of an individual named Ji Chaoqun, who was convicted in September 2022 of working for the MSS under Xu’s orders and joining the US military in order to secure a top-secret security clearance. Gee was arrested after he told an undercover FBI agent that he had access to US military bases and volunteered, unsolicited, to photograph US aircraft carriers for MSS. This photo taken on Oct. 16, 2019 shows U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets multirole fighters and an EA-18G Growler (2nd R) electronic warfare aircraft aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) as it sails in South China Sea on its way (Photo by Catherine Lai/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images) TAIWAN DISCUSS TRADE, BRITAIN AS CHINA TENSION RAISES AT BIDEN-XI MEETING Xu’s spying plan was revealed when a GE Aviation employee in Cincinnati traveled to China for a presentation in May 2017. After the employee returned, they and GE Aviation cooperated with the FBI, which continued to communicate with Xu while he played the worker. After Xu was emailed a two-page document warning about disclosing proprietary information, he asked the employee to meet with him in Europe during a business trip and for a directory of files from a company computer. Xu was arrested in Brussels, Belgium on April 1, 2018 and extradited to the US for trial. A Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II takes off at Spangdahlem Air Base – ETAD on February 28, 2022 in Spangdahlem, Germany. ((Photo by Dietmar Pohlmann/DeFodi Images via Getty Images) / Getty Images) CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP “This case is just the latest example of the Chinese government’s ongoing attacks on America’s economic security – and by extension our national security,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The Chinese government tasked an intelligence officer with stealing US trade secrets so it could advance its own commercial and military aviation efforts at the expense of an American company. This brazen action shows that the Chinese government will not stop anything from putting our companies out of business at the expense of American workers,” he added. GE Aviation, which will be renamed GE Aerospace and spun off in January 2023 after a company-wide reorganization, makes turbine engines for a number of US military aircraft. GE Aviation recently completed final tests on an upgraded engine for the F-35 Lightning stealth fighter. It has also produced engines for fighter jets such as the F-15 Eagle and F/A-18 Super Hornet. the UH-60 Blackhawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters; and the strategic transport C-5 Galaxy.
