In an article, "Charges of Illegal Exports to China," Matt Richtel mentioned Chinese scientists accused of since last October of obtaining technology secrets with intent of export it to China. In the most recent indictment on Friday, January 10, Qing Chang Jiang, the president of EHI Group USA Inc./Araj Electronics in Cupertino, Calif., was accused of illegally exporting technology with military applications. He is the fourth Chinese native to be indicted in the last four months. In the two other cases, the technology appears principally to have commercial, not military uses.
In the spring of last year, according to court documents, Mr. Jiang bought nine microwave amplifiers and sought to export them to a company known as the Hebei Far-East Harris Company. According to an affidavit, that company has the same address as the 54th Research Institute.
The indictment comes a little more than a month after the United States attorney for the Northern District of California indicted Fei Ye, who is a United States citizen, and Ming Zhong, a permanent resident. The two men were arrested at San Francisco airport and, according to the indictment, were in possession of trade secrets stolen from four Silicon Valley companies: Sun Microsystems, the Transmeta Corporation, NEC Electronics and Trident Microsystems.
In October, the United States attorney indicted Shan Yan Ming, 32, a citizen of China, who is accused of having obtained unauthorized access to the computers of 3DGeo Development Inc., a company in Mountain View, Calif., that makes software for the oil industry. According to the government, Mr. Shan is an employee of the DaQing Oil Field, a division of a major Chinese company called PetroChina. F.B.I. agents arrested Mr. Shan at San Francisco International Airport as he was trying to board a flight to China, according to prosecutors. (Source: The New York Times, Jan 14, 2003).