Xu Yanjun, the first Chinese spy transferred to the US for prosecution in 2021, was given a 20-year prison term on Wednesday.
The US Justice Department reports that Xu was found guilty of conspiracy in November 2021 for planning to steal trade secrets from different US aviation and aerospace companies.
On counts of conspiring and attempting to commit economic espionage and trade secret theft, a US federal court in Cincinnati, Ohio, sentenced him.
In the meantime, the claims against Xu were called “untrue” by Chinese officials in response to the judgement on Thursday.
To serve as a deterrent against future similar behavior, prosecutors had requested a 25-year term; however, Xu’s attorneys had argued in prior court files that such a sentence would be longer than those handed down to those who had been convicted of identical offenses.
“Today’s sentence demonstrates the seriousness of those crimes and the Justice Department’s determination to investigate and prosecute efforts by the Chinese government, or any foreign power, to threaten our economic and national security,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Following a Federal Bureau of investigation(FBI), Xu, 42, who was charged with working as a career intelligence officer for China’s Ministry of State Security, was imprisoned in Belgium in 2018. (FBI).
He was accused of targeting many American aviation and aerospace companies between 2013 and 2018, including GE Aviation, a division of General Electric Co., by using front companies and aliases (GE.N).
However, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated that the allegations against Xu “are completely wrong” at a news conference in Beijing, the country’s capital.
“We ask the U.S. side to handle the case without bias and in accordance with the law and protect the lawful rights and interests of Chinese citizens,” Mao said.