Chinese intelligence officer sentenced to 20 years in prison in espionage case

Washington — A Chinese intelligence officer convicted of economic espionage and stealing aviation trade secrets from companies including General Electric (GE) was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Wednesday, one year after a jury in Ohio convicted him on all counts.

Yanjun Xu, a deputy division director of China's intelligence arm, known as the Ministry of State Security (MSS), was indicted in 2018. He was accused of identifying specific aviation technology sought by the Chinese government and working with other MSS officers to co-opt executives of foreign technology companies and work to extract the desired information from them. 

At times using aliases and acting under the guise of Chinese universities, Xu tried to steal technology related to GE Aviation's composite aircraft engine fan, which has not been duplicated by any other company in the world, the Justice Department said. Prosecutors said he arranged and paid for apparently unwitting industry experts to travel to China in an attempt to obtain the information.