News / Foreign Policy

US indicts 6 Chinese citizens with economic espionage

Tuesday, 19 May 2015 5:53 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 19 May 2015 5:56 PM ]

The headquarters of the US Department of Justice in Washington in August 2006.

The US government has charged six Chinese citizens with economic espionage and stealing valuable technology from two American companies for the benefit of the Chinese government.

The US Department of Justice said on Tuesday three Chinese professors and three other Chinese nationals were indicted by a federal grand jury for stealing sensitive mobile-phone technology from Avago Technologies Ltd. and Skyworks Solutions Inc.

“The defendants leveraged their access to and knowledge of sensitive US technologies to illegally obtain and share US trade secrets with the PRC for economic advantage,” Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said in a statement describing the charges.

“Economic espionage imposes great costs on American businesses, weakens the global marketplace and ultimately harms US interests worldwide.”

This is at least the 11th case in which the US government has charged someone with economic espionage since the law was enacted by Congress in 1996, the Justice Department said.

The charges are Washington’s latest efforts in its long-running attempt to pressure Beijing to stop what US officials allege is the widespread theft of sensitive technology to benefit China’s commercial and military industries.

The United States has been seeking to pressure China to halt economic spying, an effort that resulted in last year’s indictment of five Chinese military officials on charges of cyber espionage.

The US Justice Department alleged that the hackers conspired to steal information from US firms that would be useful to Chinese competitors.

US officials say China and Russia have been the most aggressive in the realm of economic espionage, and they are seeking ways to curb the damage caused by such theft.

In an annual report to Congress last year, the Pentagon said “China uses its intelligence services and employs other illicit approaches that violate US laws and export controls to obtain key national security and export-restricted technologies, controlled equipment, and other materials not readily obtainable through commercial means or academia.”

AHT/GJH

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