The US Justice Department said on Wednesday it had arrested and indicted a spy for China’s Ministry of State Security on charges of economic espionage and attempting to steal trade secrets from several US aviation and aerospace companies, Reuters reported.
Chinese operative Yanjun Xu was detained in Belgium in April after a US FBI investigation and extradited to the United States on Tuesday. The Washington Post reported he was lured to Belgium by US agents.
The FBI called it an unprecedented extradition and said the indictment showed the Chinese government’s direct oversight of economic espionage against the United States. The charges come as Washington increases pressure on Beijing over its trade policies and alleged theft of US intellectual property.
A US Department of Justice statement said Xu, a deputy division director for State Security Department of China’s Jiangsu province, targeted several US aerospace companies, including GE Aviation, a subsidiary of General Electric Co (GE.N).
It described another unnamed firm as “one of the world’s largest aerospace firms, and a leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners and defense, space and security systems,” and a third as a leader in unmanned aerial vehicle technology.
GE Aviation has supplied engines for large Boeing Co (BA.N) and Airbus SE (AIR.PA) planes, and is working on a new generation of engines for commercial planes and heavy-lift military helicopters.
The indictment against Xu said he targeted aviation firms from around December 2013. It said he made contact with experts working for the firms and recruited them to travel to China, often for the initial purpose of delivering a university presentation and paying their costs and a stipend.