CNN
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A former graduate scholar in Chicago was once sentenced to 8 years in jail Wednesday for spying for the Chinese govt via amassing knowledge on engineers and scientists within the United States.
Ji Chaoqun, a Chinese nationwide who got here to america to review electric engineering on the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2013 and later enlisted in america Army Reserves, was once arrested in 2018.
The 31-year-old was once convicted final September of performing illegally as an agent of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) and of creating a subject material false commentary to america Army.
According to the Justice Department, Ji was once tasked with offering an intelligence officer with biographical knowledge on folks for doable recruitment as Chinese spies. The folks integrated Chinese nationals who have been operating as engineers and scientists in america, a few of whom labored for American protection contractors.
Ji’s spying was once a part of an effort via Chinese intelligence to procure get right of entry to to complicated aerospace and satellite tv for pc applied sciences being evolved via US corporations, the Justice Department stated in a commentary.
In 2016, a 12 months after commencement, Ji enlisted in america Army Reserves below a program by which international nationals will also be recruited if their talents are thought to be “vital to the national interest.”
In his software to sign up for this system, Ji falsely mentioned that he had now not had any touch with a international govt inside the previous seven years. He additionally didn’t divulge his dating and contacts with Chinese intelligence officials in a next interview with a US Army officer, in line with the Justice Department.
In 2018, Ji had a number of conferences with an undercover US legislation enforcement agent who was once posing as a consultant of China’s MSS. During those conferences, Ji stated that together with his army identity, he may just seek advice from and take pictures of “Roosevelt-class” plane carriers. Ji additionally defined that after he received his US citizenship and safety clearance in the course of the Army Reserves program, he would search a role on the CIA, FBI or NASA, the Justice Department stated, mentioning proof at trial.
Ji supposed to accomplish cybersecurity paintings at a kind of businesses in order that he would have get right of entry to to databases, together with those who contained clinical analysis, the Justice Department stated within the commentary.
Ji was once operating on the route of Xu Yanjun, a deputy department director on the Jiangsu provincial department of the MMS, the commentary stated.
Xu, a profession intelligence officer, was once sentenced final 12 months to twenty years in jail for plotting to thieve business secrets and techniques from a number of US aviation and aerospace corporations. Xu was once additionally the primary Chinese undercover agent extradited to america for trial, after being detained in Belgium in 2018 following an FBI investigation.
