US accused six Chinese industrial espionage

The US Department of Justice accused six Chinese citizens of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets, claiming that they had obtained illegal access to secret technologies developed in the United States and shared them with universities and companies controlled by the PRC leadership.

The charges that were filed last month were declassified and made public on Tuesday. All six of the defendants are Chinese citizens, including Hao Zhang, who is taken into custody, engineer Wei Pan and four more Chinese engineers and teachers. They are accused of stealing commercial secrets from two US technology companies, Skyworks Solutions and Avago Technologies, which produce radio frequency filters (thin film acoustoelectronic resonators, AIFC) used in cell phones and other mobile devices that process incoming and outgoing wireless signals.

Pan and Zhang received doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from a university in California around 2005, and then worked for Avago and Skyworks, respectively. According to the text of the prosecution, in 2006 and 2007. Two engineers, together with their associates, began to turn to Chinese universities and companies with proposals to start producing FBAR chips in China.

By 2008, they had established cooperation with Tianjin University, working to create a chip factory, while continuing to work at Avago and Skyworks. A year later, they quit and got a full-time job at the university, later founding a company for mass production of FBAR systems.

The names of the four other defendants are Jinping Chen, Huisui Zhang, Chun Zhou and Zhao Gang. Defendants between the ages of 26 and 41 are accused of stealing source codes, processes, specifications, layouts, and other documents from US companies, as well as providing this information to each other and other employees of Tianjin University.

“The defendants used their access to secret American technologies to illegally obtain US trade secrets and transfer them to China for economic gain,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security Affairs John Carlin.

According to the FBI officer David Johnson, the behavior described in the indictment demonstrates the "methodical and tireless attempts of foreign players to get and exploit US secret valuable technology with the help of individuals working in the United States. "

"The FBI is committed to eradicating industrial espionage, which puts American companies at a disadvantage in the global market," said David Johnson.

Zhang was arrested in Los Angeles on Saturday, upon arrival from China. If found guilty, he faces up to 50 years in prison. Authorities issued warrants for the arrest of five other defendants.