A New York man on Tuesday was sentenced to two years in prison for conspiring to steal General Electric Co’s (GE) trade secrets to benefit China, the US Department of Justice said.
Zheng Xiaoqing (鄭小清), 59, of Niskayuna, New York, was convicted of conspiracy to commit economic espionage following a four-week jury trial that ended in March last year, the department said.
US District Judge Mae D’Agostino also sentenced Zheng to pay a US$7,500 fine and serve one year of post-imprisonment supervised release.
US officials have said the Chinese government poses the biggest long-term threat to US economic and national security, and is carrying out unprecedented efforts to steal critical technology from US businesses and researchers.
China denies the allegations.
Zheng was employed at GE Power in Schenectady, New York, as an engineer specializing in turbine sealing technology. He worked at GE from 2008 until the summer of 2018, the department said.
The trial evidence showed Zheng and others in China conspired to steal GE’s trade secrets surrounding its ground-based and aviation-based turbine technologies to benefit China, including China-based companies and universities that research and manufacture parts for turbines, the department added.
“This is a case of textbook economic espionage. Zheng exploited his position of trust, betrayed his employer and conspired with the government of China to steal innovative American technology,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the department’s National Security Division.
The US had accused the former GE engineer and another Chinese businessman, named Zhang Zhaoxi, in 2019 of stealing secrets and spying on GE to aid China. Zheng had pleaded not guilty at the time.
A US federal court in Cincinnati in November sentenced a Chinese national to 20 years in prison after he was convicted of plotting to steal trade secrets from several US aviation and aerospace companies.
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