DOJ Charges Chinese Nationals for Schemes to Aid Huawei, Steal US Tech

The U.S. this week charged several Chinese nationals, including Chinese government intelligence officers, for their efforts to obstruct a federal prosecution of Huawei and illegally acquire U.S. technology. In one indictment, DOJ charged two Chinese intelligence officers with trying to steal federal prosecution documents relating to the Huawei case. A second indictment charges four Chinese nationals, including three Ministry of State Security (MSS) intelligence officers, for their involvement in a “long-running intelligence campaign” to acquire sensitive U.S. technology, information and assistance.

The indictments “take place against a backdrop of malign activity from the People's Republic of China,” said U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, including “unceasing efforts to steal sensitive U.S. technology.” The cases show a “coordinated effort across the Chinese government to lie, cheat and steal their way into unfairly dominating entire technology sectors, putting competing U.S. companies out of business,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said.

DOJ said Dong He and Zheng Wang tried to steal files and other information related to the U.S. prosecution of a “global telecommunications company” from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. The company’s name isn’t included in the complaint, but Reuters reported the firm is Huawei, which was charged in 2020 with racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets as part of a decades-long scheme to illegally acquire U.S. technology (see 2002130045).

The two Chinese officers allegedly paid a $41,000 Bitcoin bribe to a U.S. government official who they believed had been recruited to work for China but who was actually a double agent, DOJ said. The two officers were specifically seeking “confidential information about the criminal prosecution of” Huawei “in order to interfere with that prosecution,” DOJ said. Dong He faces up to 40 years in prison on charges related to obstructing a criminal prosecution, money laundering and bribery. Zheng Wang faces up to 20 years in prison for attempting to obstruct a criminal prosecution. Both remain at large.

“This case exposes the interconnection between PRC intelligence officers and Chinese companies,” Monaco said, “and it demonstrates once again why such companies, especially in the telecommunications industry, shouldn't be trusted to securely handle our sensitive personal data and communications.”

The second indictment charges Wang Lin, Bi Hongwei, Dong Ting and Wang Qiang with operating a conspiracy to illegally acquire information, materials, equipment and “assistance” for the Chinese government to help bolster its “intelligence objectives,” DOJ said. The agency said they tried to target professors at universities, including a former federal law enforcement and state homeland security official, to act as “agents” of the Chinese government.

MSS intelligence officers Wang Lin and Dong Ting, along with others, used the Ocean University of China -- also known as the Institute for International Studies -- as a “cover” to try to access “sensitive” information and equipment from U.S. college professors. The officers offered one professor “all-expenses-paid trips” to China, where they asked the person to provide China with “sensitive fingerprint technology.” The person “refused these requests and reported them to law enforcement,” DOJ said.

All four Chinese intelligence officers were charged with conspiracy to act in the U.S. as agents of a foreign government without prior notification to the attorney general, and to direct such unlawful action by others in the U.S. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum five-year prison sentence and maximum fine of $250,000. Monaco said the four officers operated the recruitment scheme for a decade, a prime example of China’s “relentless campaign to gain access to our technology.”

A third case mentioned in the DOJ release charges seven Chinese nationals in a scheme to “cause the forced repatriation” of a Chinese national living in the U.S.