News Desk
ISLAMABAD: A former Chicago graduate student has been sentenced to eight years in prison for spying for the Chinese government by gathering information on scientists and engineers in the United States (US).
A federal jury in Chicago in September convicted Ji Chaoqun, a 31-year-old Chinese national, of a conspiracy to act as an agent of China’s Ministry of State Security, acting as a spy in the US, and lying on a government form about his contacts with foreign agencies.
Ji who came to the US to study electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2013 and later enlisted in the US Army Reserves, was arrested in 2018.
According to the Justice Department, he was tasked with providing an intelligence officer with information on individuals for potential recruitment as Chinese spies. Such individuals included Chinese nationals who were working as engineers and scientists in the US, some of whom worked for American defense contractors.
China wanted access to US aerospace, satellite tech: officials
Ji’s spying was part of an effort by Chinese intelligence to access advanced aerospace and satellite technologies developed by US firms, the Justice Department said in a statement.
In 2016, a year after his graduation, Ji enlisted in the US Army Reserves under a program in which foreign nationals could be recruited if their skills were considered “vital to the national interest.”
Ji, in his application to join the program, falsely stated that he had not been in contact with a foreign government during the past seven years. He also did not disclose his relationship and contacts with Chinese intelligence officers in a later interview with a US Army official, according to the Justice Department.
