Chinese National Admits to Stealing Sensitive Military Program Documents From United Technologies

United Technologies helped design jet engines used in fighter craft similar to these jets.

A CHINESE national waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty Monday after being caught giving U.S. military secrets to China three years ago.

Yu Long, a U.S. permanent resident who also is a citizen of China, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to engage in the theft of trade secrets knowing that the offense would benefit a foreign government. He also pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful export and attempted export of defense articles from the U.S.

Long, a former employee of United Technologies, faces maximum sentences of 15 to 20 years for those charges. He made his plea in New Haven federal court in Connecticut.

Yu Long

“Long admitted to stealing and exploiting highly sensitive military technology and documents, knowing his theft would benefit China’s defense industry and deliberately contravene the embargo on U.S. Munitions List technology the United States has imposed on China,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary B. McCord.

“Export laws exist as an important part of our national security framework and disrupting and prosecuting this kind of economic espionage is one of the National Security Division’s highest priorities,” she said.

According to court documents and statements made in court, from approximately May 2008 to May 2014, Long worked as a Senior Engineer/Scientist at United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) in Connecticut. Long’s employment at UTRC included work on advanced fighter aircraft.

In 2013, he made it clear to agents outside of UTRC that he wanted to return to China to do research. During this period, he was able to appropriate UTRC secrets and share them with his colleagues in China, knowing full well their value to the Chinese military.

On Nov. 5, 2014, Long boarded a flight from Ithaca, New York to Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, with a final destination of China. During Long’s layover in Newark, CBP officers inspected Long’s checked baggage and discovered that it contained sensitive, proprietary and export controlled documents from another defense contractor.

Long was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on Nov. 7, 2014.

A review of Long’s digital media seized at the time of his arrest revealed voluminous files of military secrets. In short, the investigation revealed that Long took his laptop and a UTRC external hard drive with him to China in 2014, at which time there was a substantial body of highly sensitive, proprietary and export controlled materials present on that digital media. UTRC has confirmed that the hard drive that Long unlawfully retained and accessed in China contained not only documents and data from projects on which Long worked while employed at the company but also from projects on which he did not work to which he would have had access.

A sentencing date has not been set. Long has been detained since his arrest.

“In an effort to further his own career, this defendant stole an extraordinary amount of proprietary military program information from United Technologies and transported much of that stolen information to China,” said U.S. Attorney Deirdre M.Daly.

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Woman sentenced to prison for acting as an illegal agent of the PRC

Voice of America

The technology for an underwater drone, pictured above, was smuggled to China.

AMIN YU, 55, of Orlando, Florida, was sentenced Monday (Sept. 27) to 21 months in federal prison for acting in the U.S. as an illegal agent of a foreign government by U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton, Jr.

According to the plea agreement, from at least 2002 to February 2014, at the direction of co-conspirators working for Harbin Engineering University (HEU, a PRC-controlled entity) in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Yu obtained systems and components for marine submersible vehicles from companies in the U.S. She then illegally exported those items to the PRC for use by her co-conspirators in the development of marine submersible vehicles including unmanned underwater vehicles, remotely operated vehicles and autonomous underwater vehicles for HEU and other state-controlled entities. 

Yu illegally exported items by failing to file Electronic Export Information (EEI), as required by U.S. law and by also filing false EEI. Yu completed and caused the completion of export-related documents in which she significantly undervalued the items that she had exported and provided false end user information for those items.

Yu, who is a citizen of China and a legal permanent resident of the United States, was also charged for conspiring to commit international money laundering during the course of her activities in behalf of the PRC.

“Amin Yu made hundreds of thousands of dollars by acting covertly in Orlando on behalf of the Chinese government and by skirting U.S. export laws and regulations,” said U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley.

This case was investigated by the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, and the NCIS. 

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Commission on Civil Rights ask probe of possible racial profiling of Chinese/American scientists

Sherry Chen, left and Xiaoxing Xi, right, at a press conference after espionage charges against them were dropped.

THE U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is joining the call by Asian/American members of Congress and civil rights organization for an investigation on the targeting and prosecution of Chinese Americans suspected of spying.

"We are concerned that these cases may reflect insufficient supervision, due diligence and expertise in investigating before arresting our fellow citizens and tainting them and their families with the charge of disloyalty," stated a July 15 letter to Michael E. Horowitz, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The commission members cited the cases of Temple University professor Xiaoxing Xi and National Weather Service hydrologist Sherry Chen, both of whom had espionage charges dropped because of insufficient evidence and investigators didn't understand the science they believed the two were releasing to foreign governments.

"The nature of these charges have a long term devastating impact on the careers and the families of those wrongly accused who have yet to receive a formal apology from the Department of Justice," said the letter. "In this highly racially charged environment, they also have the potential to harm the communities from which these scientists come and undermine the credibility of the Department of Justice."

RELATED: Asian/American scientists still feeling impact of trauma

Earlier, a June 21 letter from the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, a coalition of 35  AAPI civil rights agencies expressed similar concerns, about “... the apparent practice of racial profiling in national espionage cases. Both Sherry Chen and Professor Xi’s cases highlight the very human costs of charges brought to court with insufficient evidence,” said Ken Lee, Chief Executive Officer of the Organization of Chinese Americans. “The treatment that both of them endured must never happen again."

No one is denying that there are foreign governments trying to U.S. military technology and secrets. The DOJ has been able to investigate and prosecute several of those cases. What concerns the Commission and the AAPI community is that investigators may be using racial profiling rather than hard evidence to prosecute individuals.

RELATED: Spy charges against Taiwanese/American

In November last year, 40 members of Congress called on the U.S. Attorney General to investigate whether race or ethnicity played a role in the accusations of espionage faced by Xi and Chen.

Meanwhile, the scientists are still suffering from repercussions from the accusations. Chen did not get her old job back. In May 2016, Chen filed a discrimination complaint against the Commerce Department.

Xi returned to work  but his family is still feeling the trauma. He wrote on his website: "I hope my elder daughter Joyce can again focus on her college work without being occupied by trying to tell everybody that her dad is not a spy. I hope my younger daughter Sarah can start healing from the trauma of seeing armed agents burst into our home and her daddy taken away in handcuffs. I hope my students can now finish their degree work without being concerned about having a 'criminal' as their advisor."

There have been no apologies from the DOJ for their actions even though they were clearly in the wrong. Only in the case of Los Alamos National Lab scientist Wen Ho Lee, who was also falsely accused, did the judge apologize.

"We want to make sure this doesn't keep happening to the community," said Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif. "When you have Asia/ Americans being targeted for espionage for taking actions that otherwise would not be suspicious if they weren't Asian Americans, then you have a problem."

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is an independent, bipartisan agency charged with advising the President and Congress on civil rights matters and issuing a federal civil rights enforcement report.  The Commission letter was signed by the six commissioners: Chairman Martin R. Castro, Robert Achtenberg, Karen K. Narasai, Patricia Timmons-Goodson, David Kladney and Michael Yaki.

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For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

Chinese national sentenced to prison for helping foreign hackers tap into military secrets

A CHINESE businessman who admitted to participating in a years-long conspiracy that involved Chinese military officers hacking into the computer networks of major U.S. defense contractors in order to steal military technical data was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison.

Su Bin

Chinese national Su Bin, who is also known as Stephen Su and Stephen Subin, 51, was sentenced July 13 by U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder of the Central District of California.

“Su Bin’s sentence is a just punishment for his admitted role in a conspiracy with hackers from the People's Liberation Army Air Force to illegally access and steal sensitive U.S. military information,” said Assistant Attorney General John P.  Carlin. “Su assisted the Chinese military hackers in their efforts to illegally access and steal designs for cutting-edge military aircraft that are indispensable to our national defense," said Assistant Attorney General John P.  Carlin.

 “Over the course of years, this defendant sought to undermine the national security of the United States by seeking out information that would benefit a foreign government and providing that country with information it had never before seen."  said U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker of the Central District of California. 

RELATED: Woman convicted of conspiring to send military technology to China

Su told his co-conspirators – military officers in China – whom to target, which files to steal and why the information they stole was significant. During the course of the conspiracy, Su and his co-conspirators stole sensitive military and export-controlled data and sent the stolen information to China.

On March 23, Su admitted that he conspired with two persons in China from October 2008 to March 2014 to hack protected computer networks in the United States – including computers belonging to the Boeing Company in Orange County, California – to obtain sensitive military information and to export that information illegally from the United States to China.

A criminal complaint filed in 2014 and subsequent indictments filed in Los Angeles charged Su, a China-based businessman in the aviation and aerospace fields, for his role in the criminal conspiracy to steal military technical data, including data relating to the C-17 strategic transport aircraft and certain fighter jets produced for the U.S. military. 

Su was initially arrested in Canada in July 2014 on a warrant issued in relation to this case. Su ultimately waived extradition and consented to be conveyed to the U.S. in February 2016.

Spy charges brought against Taiwanese/American

By Louis Chan
Reprinted from AsAm New

U.S. Navy Lt. Edward Lin in a 2008 photo.

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Edward Lin faces charges of espionage and prostitution, reports the Washington Post.

The accusations are being described as a fall from grace for the immigrant from Taiwan who just seven years ago spoke at a naturalization ceremony in Honolulu about his road to American citizenship

I can’t help but wonder if this is going to turn into another case of racial profiling.

In recent years, espionage charges filed by the Feds against Asian/Americans have been dropped and later cited as an example of racial profiling.

RELATED: Spy charges dropped vs. Asian/American scientists

Leaders from the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus , Organization of Chinese Americans and Committee of 100 have called on Attorney General Loretta Lynch to launch a federal investigation into the profiling of Asian Americans. It’s a call that has gone unheeded.

The case against Lin is slightly different than the failed cases against Temple University professors Xiaoxing Xi and National Weather Service employee Sherry Chen in that this is a military case and not a federal case.

The Navy has revealed very little about the case against Lin, and the charge sheet made available to the public was heavily redacted.

You can learn more about the case against Lin in the Washington Post.

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