The Official Chinese 🇨🇳 Espionage & Cold War Thread
Dorian Breh
Veteran
This is their plan.
China's advantage is that they can crack down and hyper-monitor their population
They are gonna be better than the US at that
If we race them to the bottom in terms of intelligence community authoritarianism there's no doubt we would lose since they are the best at that.
nytimes.com
U.S. Secretly Expelled Chinese Officials Suspected of Spying After Breach of Military Base
By Edward Wong and Julian E. Barnes
10-12 minutes
Chinese Embassy officials trespassed onto a Virginia base that is home to Special Operations forces. Their expulsions added to tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington. The expulsions show the American government is now taking a harder line against suspected espionage by China.Credit...Justin T. Gellerson for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The American government secretly expelled two Chinese Embassy officials this fall after they drove on to a sensitive military base in Virginia, according to people with knowledge of the episode. The expulsions appear to be the first of Chinese diplomats suspected of espionage in more than 30 years.
American officials believe at least one of the Chinese officials was an intelligence officer operating under diplomatic cover, said six people with knowledge of the expulsions. The group, which included the officials’ wives, evaded military personnel pursuing them and stopped only after fire trucks blocked their path.
The episode in September, which neither Washington nor Beijing made public, has intensified concerns in the Trump administration that China is expanding its spying efforts in the United States as the two nations are increasingly locked in a geopolitical and economic rivalry. American intelligence officials say China poses a greater espionage threat than any other country.
In recent months, Chinese officials with diplomatic passports have become bolder about showing up unannounced at research or government facilities, American officials said, with the infiltration of the military base only the most remarkable instance.
The expulsions, apparently the first since the United States forced out two Chinese Embassy employees with diplomatic cover in 1987, show the American government is now taking a harder line against suspected espionage by China, officials said.
Recent episodes of suspected spying add to the broader tensions between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies and biggest strategic rivals. That conflict is heightened by a trade war that President Trump started in July 2018 and that shows only tentative signs of abating.
On Oct. 16, weeks after the intrusion at the base, the State Department announced sharp restrictions on the activities of Chinese diplomats, requiring them to provide notice before meeting with local or state officials or visiting educational and research institutions.
At the time, a senior State Department official told reporters that the rule, which applied to all Chinese Missions in the United States and its territories, was a response to Chinese regulations imposed years ago requiring American diplomats to seek permission to travel outside their host cities or to visit certain institutions.
The Chinese Embassy said in October that the new rules were “in violation of the Vienna Convention.”
Two American officials said last week that those restrictions had been under consideration for a while because of growing calls in the American government for reciprocity, but episodes like the one at the base accelerated the rollout.
The base intrusion took place in late September on a sensitive installation near Norfolk, Va. The base includes Special Operations forces, said the people with knowledge of the incident. Several bases in the area have such units, including one with the headquarters of the Navy’s elite SEAL Team Six.
The Chinese officials and their wives drove up to a checkpoint for entry to the base, said people briefed on the episode. A guard, realizing that they did not have permission to enter, told them to go through the gate, turn around and exit the base, which is common procedure in such situations.
But the Chinese officials instead continued on to the base, according to those familiar with the incident. After the fire trucks blocked them, the Chinese officials indicated that they had not understood the guard’s English instructions, and had simply gotten lost, according to people briefed on the matter.
American officials said they were skeptical that the intruders made an innocent error and dismissed the idea that their English was insufficient to understand the initial order to leave.
It is not clear what they were trying to do on the base, but some American officials said they believed it was to test the security at the installation, according to a person briefed on the matter. Had the Chinese officials made it onto the base without being stopped, the embassy could have dispatched a more senior intelligence officer to enter the base, the theory goes.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry and Chinese Embassy in Washington did not reply to requests for comment about the episode. Two associates of Chinese Embassy officials said they were told that the expelled officials were on a sightseeing tour when they accidentally drove onto the base.
The State Department, which is responsible for relations with the Chinese Embassy and its diplomats, and the F.B.I., which oversees counterintelligence in the United States, declined to comment.
Chinese Embassy officials complained to State Department officials about the expulsions and asked in a meeting whether the agency was retaliating for an official Chinese propaganda campaign in August against an American diplomat, Julie Eadeh. At the time, state-run news organizations accused Ms. Eadeh, a political counselor in Hong Kong, of being a “black hand” behind the territory’s pro-democracy protests, and personal details about her were posted online. A State Department spokeswoman called China a “thuggish regime.”
So far, China has not retaliated by expelling American diplomats or intelligence officers from the embassy in Beijing, perhaps a sign that Chinese officials understand their colleagues overstepped by trying to enter the base. One person who was briefed on reactions in the Chinese Embassy in Washington said he was told employees there were surprised that their colleagues had tried something so brazen.
In 2016, Chinese officers in Chengdu abducted an American Consulate official they believed to be a C.I.A. officer, interrogated him and forced him to make a confession. Colleagues retrieved him the next day and evacuated him from the country. American officials threatened to expel suspected Chinese agents in the United States, but did not do so.
For decades, counterintelligence officials have tried to pinpoint embassy or consulate employees with diplomatic cover who are spies and assign officers to follow some of them. Now there is growing urgency to do that by both Washington and Beijing.
Evan S. Medeiros, a senior Asia director at the National Security Council under President Barack Obama, said he was unaware of any expulsions of Chinese diplomats or spies with diplomatic cover during Mr. Obama’s time in office.
If it is rare for the Americans to expel Chinese spies or other embassy employees who have diplomatic cover, Mr. Medeiros said, “it’s probably because for much of the first 40 years, Chinese intelligence was not very aggressive.”
“But that changed about 10 years ago,” he added. “Chinese intelligence became more sophisticated and more aggressive, both in human and electronic forms.”
This year, a Chinese student was sentenced to a year in prison for photographing an American defense intelligence installation near Key West, Fla., in September 2018. The student, Zhao Qianli, walked to where the fence circling the base ended at the ocean, then stepped around the fence and onto the beach. From there, he walked onto the base and took photographs, including of an area with satellite dishes and antennae.
When he was arrested, Mr. Zhao spoke in broken English and, like the officials stopped on the Virginia base, claimed he was lost.
Chinese citizens have been caught not just wandering on to government installations but also improperly entering university laboratories and even crossing farmland to pilfer specially bred seeds.
In 2016, a Chinese man, Mo Hailong, pleaded guilty to trying to steal corn seeds from American agribusiness firms and give them to a Chinese company. Before he was caught, Mr. Mo successfully stole seeds developed by the American companies and sent them back to China, according to court records. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
The F.B.I. and the National Institutes of Health are trying to root out scientists in the United States who they say are stealing biomedical research for other nations, China in particular. The F.B.I. has also warned research institutions about risks posed by Chinese students and scholars.
Some university officials say the campaign unfairly targets Chinese citizens or ethnic Chinese and smacks of a new Red Scare.
Last month, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a former C.I.A. officer, was sentenced to 19 years in prison, one of several former American intelligence officials sentenced this year for spying for Beijing.
His work with Chinese intelligence coincided with the demolition of the C.I.A.’s network of informants in China — one of the biggest counterintelligence coups against the United States in decades. From 2010 to 2012, Chinese officers killed at least a dozen informants and imprisoned others. One man and his pregnant wife were shot in 2011 in a ministry’s courtyard, and the execution was shown on closed-circuit television, according to a new book on Chinese espionage.
Many in the C.I.A. feared China had a mole in the agency, and some officers suspected Mr. Lee, though prosecutors did not tie him to the network’s collapse.
Edward Wong is a diplomatic and international correspondent who has reported for The Times for more than 20 years, 13 from Iraq and China. He received a Livingston Award and was on a team of Pulitzer Prize finalists for Iraq War coverage. He has been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard and a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton. @ewong
Julian E. Barnes is a national security reporter based in Washington, covering the intelligence agencies. Before joining The Times in 2018, he wrote about security matters for The Wall Street Journal. @julianbarnes • Facebook
U.S. Secretly Expelled Chinese Officials Suspected of Spying After Breach of Military Base
By Edward Wong and Julian E. Barnes
10-12 minutes
Chinese Embassy officials trespassed onto a Virginia base that is home to Special Operations forces. Their expulsions added to tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington. The expulsions show the American government is now taking a harder line against suspected espionage by China.Credit...Justin T. Gellerson for The New York Times
- Dec. 15, 2019Updated 9:40 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON — The American government secretly expelled two Chinese Embassy officials this fall after they drove on to a sensitive military base in Virginia, according to people with knowledge of the episode. The expulsions appear to be the first of Chinese diplomats suspected of espionage in more than 30 years.
American officials believe at least one of the Chinese officials was an intelligence officer operating under diplomatic cover, said six people with knowledge of the expulsions. The group, which included the officials’ wives, evaded military personnel pursuing them and stopped only after fire trucks blocked their path.
The episode in September, which neither Washington nor Beijing made public, has intensified concerns in the Trump administration that China is expanding its spying efforts in the United States as the two nations are increasingly locked in a geopolitical and economic rivalry. American intelligence officials say China poses a greater espionage threat than any other country.
In recent months, Chinese officials with diplomatic passports have become bolder about showing up unannounced at research or government facilities, American officials said, with the infiltration of the military base only the most remarkable instance.
The expulsions, apparently the first since the United States forced out two Chinese Embassy employees with diplomatic cover in 1987, show the American government is now taking a harder line against suspected espionage by China, officials said.
Recent episodes of suspected spying add to the broader tensions between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies and biggest strategic rivals. That conflict is heightened by a trade war that President Trump started in July 2018 and that shows only tentative signs of abating.
On Oct. 16, weeks after the intrusion at the base, the State Department announced sharp restrictions on the activities of Chinese diplomats, requiring them to provide notice before meeting with local or state officials or visiting educational and research institutions.
At the time, a senior State Department official told reporters that the rule, which applied to all Chinese Missions in the United States and its territories, was a response to Chinese regulations imposed years ago requiring American diplomats to seek permission to travel outside their host cities or to visit certain institutions.
The Chinese Embassy said in October that the new rules were “in violation of the Vienna Convention.”
Two American officials said last week that those restrictions had been under consideration for a while because of growing calls in the American government for reciprocity, but episodes like the one at the base accelerated the rollout.
The base intrusion took place in late September on a sensitive installation near Norfolk, Va. The base includes Special Operations forces, said the people with knowledge of the incident. Several bases in the area have such units, including one with the headquarters of the Navy’s elite SEAL Team Six.
The Chinese officials and their wives drove up to a checkpoint for entry to the base, said people briefed on the episode. A guard, realizing that they did not have permission to enter, told them to go through the gate, turn around and exit the base, which is common procedure in such situations.
But the Chinese officials instead continued on to the base, according to those familiar with the incident. After the fire trucks blocked them, the Chinese officials indicated that they had not understood the guard’s English instructions, and had simply gotten lost, according to people briefed on the matter.
American officials said they were skeptical that the intruders made an innocent error and dismissed the idea that their English was insufficient to understand the initial order to leave.
It is not clear what they were trying to do on the base, but some American officials said they believed it was to test the security at the installation, according to a person briefed on the matter. Had the Chinese officials made it onto the base without being stopped, the embassy could have dispatched a more senior intelligence officer to enter the base, the theory goes.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry and Chinese Embassy in Washington did not reply to requests for comment about the episode. Two associates of Chinese Embassy officials said they were told that the expelled officials were on a sightseeing tour when they accidentally drove onto the base.
The State Department, which is responsible for relations with the Chinese Embassy and its diplomats, and the F.B.I., which oversees counterintelligence in the United States, declined to comment.
Chinese Embassy officials complained to State Department officials about the expulsions and asked in a meeting whether the agency was retaliating for an official Chinese propaganda campaign in August against an American diplomat, Julie Eadeh. At the time, state-run news organizations accused Ms. Eadeh, a political counselor in Hong Kong, of being a “black hand” behind the territory’s pro-democracy protests, and personal details about her were posted online. A State Department spokeswoman called China a “thuggish regime.”
So far, China has not retaliated by expelling American diplomats or intelligence officers from the embassy in Beijing, perhaps a sign that Chinese officials understand their colleagues overstepped by trying to enter the base. One person who was briefed on reactions in the Chinese Embassy in Washington said he was told employees there were surprised that their colleagues had tried something so brazen.
In 2016, Chinese officers in Chengdu abducted an American Consulate official they believed to be a C.I.A. officer, interrogated him and forced him to make a confession. Colleagues retrieved him the next day and evacuated him from the country. American officials threatened to expel suspected Chinese agents in the United States, but did not do so.
For decades, counterintelligence officials have tried to pinpoint embassy or consulate employees with diplomatic cover who are spies and assign officers to follow some of them. Now there is growing urgency to do that by both Washington and Beijing.
Evan S. Medeiros, a senior Asia director at the National Security Council under President Barack Obama, said he was unaware of any expulsions of Chinese diplomats or spies with diplomatic cover during Mr. Obama’s time in office.
If it is rare for the Americans to expel Chinese spies or other embassy employees who have diplomatic cover, Mr. Medeiros said, “it’s probably because for much of the first 40 years, Chinese intelligence was not very aggressive.”
“But that changed about 10 years ago,” he added. “Chinese intelligence became more sophisticated and more aggressive, both in human and electronic forms.”
This year, a Chinese student was sentenced to a year in prison for photographing an American defense intelligence installation near Key West, Fla., in September 2018. The student, Zhao Qianli, walked to where the fence circling the base ended at the ocean, then stepped around the fence and onto the beach. From there, he walked onto the base and took photographs, including of an area with satellite dishes and antennae.
When he was arrested, Mr. Zhao spoke in broken English and, like the officials stopped on the Virginia base, claimed he was lost.
Chinese citizens have been caught not just wandering on to government installations but also improperly entering university laboratories and even crossing farmland to pilfer specially bred seeds.
In 2016, a Chinese man, Mo Hailong, pleaded guilty to trying to steal corn seeds from American agribusiness firms and give them to a Chinese company. Before he was caught, Mr. Mo successfully stole seeds developed by the American companies and sent them back to China, according to court records. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
The F.B.I. and the National Institutes of Health are trying to root out scientists in the United States who they say are stealing biomedical research for other nations, China in particular. The F.B.I. has also warned research institutions about risks posed by Chinese students and scholars.
Some university officials say the campaign unfairly targets Chinese citizens or ethnic Chinese and smacks of a new Red Scare.
Last month, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a former C.I.A. officer, was sentenced to 19 years in prison, one of several former American intelligence officials sentenced this year for spying for Beijing.
His work with Chinese intelligence coincided with the demolition of the C.I.A.’s network of informants in China — one of the biggest counterintelligence coups against the United States in decades. From 2010 to 2012, Chinese officers killed at least a dozen informants and imprisoned others. One man and his pregnant wife were shot in 2011 in a ministry’s courtyard, and the execution was shown on closed-circuit television, according to a new book on Chinese espionage.
Many in the C.I.A. feared China had a mole in the agency, and some officers suspected Mr. Lee, though prosecutors did not tie him to the network’s collapse.
Edward Wong is a diplomatic and international correspondent who has reported for The Times for more than 20 years, 13 from Iraq and China. He received a Livingston Award and was on a team of Pulitzer Prize finalists for Iraq War coverage. He has been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard and a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton. @ewong
Julian E. Barnes is a national security reporter based in Washington, covering the intelligence agencies. Before joining The Times in 2018, he wrote about security matters for The Wall Street Journal. @julianbarnes • Facebook
wsj.com
Cisco Wins Legal Challenge in Battle Against Chinese Counterfeits
Aaron Tilley
5-6 minutes
Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO +1.68% has won a legal battle against counterfeit versions of key networking equipment, securing an injunction that requires big online marketplaces, including Amazon. AMZN +0.44% com Inc. and Chinese rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA +1.59% to halt the sale of some knockoffs.
Cisco secured the sales ban in a temporary injunction seen by The Wall Street Journal. The company had argued that counterfeit items threatened U.S. national security and health systems, in part, because the items were more failure prone and the software would be hard to update and keep secure. Cisco is trying to use the ruling to galvanize other suppliers to build an industrywide effort to curb counterfeit sales.
The U.S. government and tech companies have been leaning on China to do more to crack down on counterfeit products. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer last week said as part of a recent trade deal with China, Beijing made specific commitments on intellectual property, including counterfeiting, patent and trademark issues and pharmaceutical rights.
Cisco’s suit, filed in federal court in the Eastern District of New York, alleges that four Chinese companies made counterfeit versions of its transceivers, a component necessary for sending and receiving digital information. The company’s transceivers are used widely in networking gear to pass data throughout hospitals, military facilities and corporate data centers. Counterfeit transceivers are easy to sell because they generally look the same across many companies.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
What precedent do you think this case sets for future counterfeit issues between American and Chinese companies? Join the conversation below.
The judgment was handed down against four Chinese manufacturers— Shenzhen Tianheng Network Co., Gezhi Photonics Technology Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Sourcelight Technology Co., and Dariocom. The companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Rowan TELS Corp., a new San Francisco consultant that assists companies dealing with counterfeit products, estimates that the four Chinese companies account for more than half of the counterfeit transceiver market. The total transceiver market was estimated to be nearly $7 billion in 2018 sales globally, according to research firm IHS Markit Ltd. Counterfeit experts say fakes can account for 5% or more of tech equipment sales.
The injunction requires online commerce sites—including Alibaba, Amazon, and eBay Inc.—to remove any listings of Cisco-labeled products on the pages of those companies. Amazon said it was committed to halting the sale of counterfeits. The other online vendors had no immediate comment.
The ruling also freezes assets owned by the Chinese companies.
Cisco for years has been fighting against alleged infringement by Chinese companies of its patents and the sale of counterfeit versions of its products. The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security in 2010 announced that they had seized $143 million worth of counterfeit Cisco networking gear manufactured in China. Cisco also sued Chinese telecommunications-gear rival Huawei in 2003 for copying its router software, though the patent-infringement suit was dropped a year later. Huawei at the time admitted some software was apparently copied from Cisco, but was being removed.
In the latest case, Cisco engineers tested transceivers from the four companies and determined they were counterfeit. Lawyers representing Cisco said they expect a permanent injunction against the four Chinese companies to be handed down soon.
China, ahead of the trade agreement, had already said it issued a directive to strengthen intellectual-property rights.
“We welcome the news that China will strengthen intellectual-property protections in the country,” Cisco General Counsel Mark Chandler said in an interview. “We have worked with Chinese authorities over the years to raid facilities and shut down counterfeiters.”
Cisco is hoping its legal battle in the transceiver case will cause other networking gear makers to join an effort to crack down on counterfeit products. The company said it is working with Rowan to build that coalition.
Rowan’s CEO, John Amster, said his company is building software to track and monitor counterfeiters. But to expose the full scope of the counterfeit networks would require data from more manufacturers to target the knockoffs collectively.
Cisco’s Mr. Chandler said that such an industrywide approach would give legal challenges more force. “We have a common interest in shutting down this activity.”
Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Cisco Wins Legal Challenge in Battle Against Chinese Counterfeits
Aaron Tilley
5-6 minutes
Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO +1.68% has won a legal battle against counterfeit versions of key networking equipment, securing an injunction that requires big online marketplaces, including Amazon. AMZN +0.44% com Inc. and Chinese rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA +1.59% to halt the sale of some knockoffs.
Cisco secured the sales ban in a temporary injunction seen by The Wall Street Journal. The company had argued that counterfeit items threatened U.S. national security and health systems, in part, because the items were more failure prone and the software would be hard to update and keep secure. Cisco is trying to use the ruling to galvanize other suppliers to build an industrywide effort to curb counterfeit sales.
The U.S. government and tech companies have been leaning on China to do more to crack down on counterfeit products. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer last week said as part of a recent trade deal with China, Beijing made specific commitments on intellectual property, including counterfeiting, patent and trademark issues and pharmaceutical rights.
Cisco’s suit, filed in federal court in the Eastern District of New York, alleges that four Chinese companies made counterfeit versions of its transceivers, a component necessary for sending and receiving digital information. The company’s transceivers are used widely in networking gear to pass data throughout hospitals, military facilities and corporate data centers. Counterfeit transceivers are easy to sell because they generally look the same across many companies.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
What precedent do you think this case sets for future counterfeit issues between American and Chinese companies? Join the conversation below.
The judgment was handed down against four Chinese manufacturers— Shenzhen Tianheng Network Co., Gezhi Photonics Technology Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Sourcelight Technology Co., and Dariocom. The companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Rowan TELS Corp., a new San Francisco consultant that assists companies dealing with counterfeit products, estimates that the four Chinese companies account for more than half of the counterfeit transceiver market. The total transceiver market was estimated to be nearly $7 billion in 2018 sales globally, according to research firm IHS Markit Ltd. Counterfeit experts say fakes can account for 5% or more of tech equipment sales.
The injunction requires online commerce sites—including Alibaba, Amazon, and eBay Inc.—to remove any listings of Cisco-labeled products on the pages of those companies. Amazon said it was committed to halting the sale of counterfeits. The other online vendors had no immediate comment.
The ruling also freezes assets owned by the Chinese companies.
Cisco for years has been fighting against alleged infringement by Chinese companies of its patents and the sale of counterfeit versions of its products. The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security in 2010 announced that they had seized $143 million worth of counterfeit Cisco networking gear manufactured in China. Cisco also sued Chinese telecommunications-gear rival Huawei in 2003 for copying its router software, though the patent-infringement suit was dropped a year later. Huawei at the time admitted some software was apparently copied from Cisco, but was being removed.
In the latest case, Cisco engineers tested transceivers from the four companies and determined they were counterfeit. Lawyers representing Cisco said they expect a permanent injunction against the four Chinese companies to be handed down soon.
China, ahead of the trade agreement, had already said it issued a directive to strengthen intellectual-property rights.
“We welcome the news that China will strengthen intellectual-property protections in the country,” Cisco General Counsel Mark Chandler said in an interview. “We have worked with Chinese authorities over the years to raid facilities and shut down counterfeiters.”
Cisco is hoping its legal battle in the transceiver case will cause other networking gear makers to join an effort to crack down on counterfeit products. The company said it is working with Rowan to build that coalition.
Rowan’s CEO, John Amster, said his company is building software to track and monitor counterfeiters. But to expose the full scope of the counterfeit networks would require data from more manufacturers to target the knockoffs collectively.
Cisco’s Mr. Chandler said that such an industrywide approach would give legal challenges more force. “We have a common interest in shutting down this activity.”
Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Chinese researcher ‘tried to smuggle biological material out of US’
Chinese researcher accused of trying to smuggle vials of ‘biological material’ out of US hidden in a sock
- An affidavit from an FBI agent says Zheng Zaosong was detained at Boston Airport after vials containing a ‘brown liquid’ were found in his checked baggage
- The doctoral student who had been doing research at Beth Israel Hospital faces charges of ‘making false, fictitious and fraudulent statements’ to US agents
Cissy Zhou
Published: 10:30pm, 22 Dec, 2019
Updated: 6:12am, 23 Dec, 2019
TOP PICKS
9.1k
Zheng Zaosong confessed to taking material from a lab in Boston, according to an FBI affidavit. Photo: Shutterstock
A Chinese medical researcher was arrested in Boston earlier this month on suspicion of trying to take stolen biological samples back to China, according to an affidavit by an FBI agent.
According to the agent’s testimony, published with redactions on Universal Hub, a community news and information site for the Boston area, Zheng Zaosong, 29, was questioned at Logan International Airport on December 9.
FBI Special Agent Kara Spice said 21 wrapped vials containing a “brown liquid” that appeared to be “biological material” were found in a sock during an inspection of his checked baggage.
He is now under investigation for attempting to bring undeclared biological samples back to China and making “false, fictitious and fraudulent statements” to US customs.
Gene-edited baby scandal: where is scientist He Jiankui?
5 Dec 2019
Zheng, a doctoral student at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, had been doing research at the Boston-based Beth Israel Hospital and was due to catch a flight to Beijing.
According to the affidavit, Zheng had been asked multiple times whether he had been travelling with any biological items or research material in his baggage and denied it each time.
He was then escorted to a baggage room, where customs officers showed him the vials found in his checked luggage.
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He was asked why he did not declare the vials and replied that they were not important and had been given to him by a friend named Zhang Tao.
The researcher was stopped at Logan Airport in Boston. Photo: Wikipedia
The affidavit said Zheng had failed to explain why he had concealed these vials in a sock in his baggage.
The document says Zheng was later taken to an interview room and confessed that he had stolen eight vials from the research lab at Beth Israel Hospital and he had replicated 11 vials from Zhang Tao’s research.
The affidavit added that Zheng said he had planned to take these vials to Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital for further analysis and hoped to publish a paper under his own name if the research proved successful.
The biological samples are currently being examined and their contents remain unknown.
A laptop owned by another Chinese national was also found in Zheng’s baggage and the FBI concluded it contained research material after an initial inspection.
Zheng explained that he was taking it to China for his friend who “could not fit it in his luggage”.
The Universal Hub reported that a federal judge had set bail at US$100,000 at a hearing on Wednesday but revoked it later.
A spokesperson for Sun Yat-sen University did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday.
According to the official website of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, an affiliate of the university, a student named Zheng Zaosong was among the winners of the “excellent student scholarship” awarded in 2018.
The scientist had been conducting research at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. Photo: Wikipedia
The case took place at a time when tensions and mistrust are building up between China and the US over scientific exchanges.
The US has already enhanced scrutiny and tightened visas for Chinese researchers and doctoral students in certain fields due to concerns about intellectual property theft.
The New York Times reported last month that the National Institutes of Health and the FBI had started a major effort to root out scientists who are stealing biomedical research for other countries from institutions across the US.
Chinese scientist pleads guilty to stealing trade secrets
13 Nov 2019
Almost all of the incidents they uncovered and that are under investigation involve scientists of Chinese descent, including naturalised American citizens, acting on behalf of China, the report said.
It cited government officials and university administrators who said that some of those under investigation were suspected of setting up labs in China that secretly duplicated American research.
China has been asking the US to treat Chinese scientists and researchers in a fair manner.
A translated report about Zhang’s case was published on the Chinese social media outlet WeChat, prompting questions about his behaviour from web users.
“Even if the samples can be smuggled outside the US border, it will be illegal to take undeclared biological materials into China,” one commented.
“You are making life very difficult for every future Chinese student [in the US],” another commented.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Chinese researcher ‘tried to smuggle biological material out of the US’
@88m3 @ADevilYouKhow @wire28 @dtownreppin214
@DonKnock @dza @wire28 @BigMoneyGrip @Dameon Farrow @re'up @Blackfyre @Cali_livin @NY's #1 Draft Pick
China is going to do everything in their power to help trump stay in office.. They know once he’s out they can’t pull this level of bs they are doing now
Thiefs and cheaters.