Chinese Man Arrested By FBI for Stealing Technology from GE

I wonder if major corporations in the US even consider the espionage risk of hiring Chinese nationals for sensitive positions?: 
The FBI said they arrested Xiaoqing Zheng, a General Electric engineer, and found a handbook explaining ‘resources’ China would people who provided it with technology (AFP Photo/VINCENT KESSLER)
A Chinese-American engineer faces charges of stealing valuable technology from General Electric, sneaking it out hidden in a picture of the sunset to take to China, the US Justice Department said. Xiaoqing Zheng, 56, a US citizen also believed to have Chinese nationality, was due to appear before a judge in Albany, New York on Thursday, a day after his arrest, according to federal prosecutors. Following a four-year investigation, the FBI arrested Xiaoqing Zheng after searching his home and finding, among other things, a handbook detailing “resources” Beijing would grant to individuals providing certain technologies. Zheng’s arrest comes as President Donald Trump intensifies the trade war with Beijing, largely over complaints the country steals US technology or obliges American companies to share know-how in exchange for doing business in China.  [AFP]
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Doug
Doug
6 years ago

Lock the Red Chinese S.O.B. Up.

HK
HK
6 years ago

To answer your question, it’s a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to discriminate in employment & hiring decisions based on race, nationality, color creed, religion etc., so no, considering someone an “esspionage risk” just b/c theyhave Chinese ethnicity would mot only be racist, but also illegal. Mind you, the FBI hasn‘t even established or even come close to proving he engaged in industrial eapionage just b/c he had something from China downloaded on his pc? Bollocks. And Remember Wen-Ho Lee? The FBI went all out in trying to prove this Chinese-American nuclear scientist was engaging in espionage by passing nuclear sectets from his lab at Almagadro to the Chinese. One year later after placing him under 24/7 surveillance, the only thing they had on him was storing classified work docs on his unsecured laptop. (The FBI had to drop all the espionage accusations levied against him and clear him of all charges due to no evidence,.)

Andy
Andy
6 years ago

“GE monitored Zheng as he allegedly transferred files containing turbine technology to his personal email account while hiding the data within the binary code of a digital photograph of a sunset, a process known as “steganography,” according to McDonald.”

Maybe he was just testing GE’s security? (But forgot to tell them he breached it, lol) 😛

not an expert
not an expert
6 years ago

We need to change our employment law. GE shouldn’t have hired this spy. Tort law should also make it easier for GE to sue the companies who received this stolen technology and earn a 3x or 10x multiplier on proven damages. As for the spy, industrial espionage like this should get no punishment less than the death penalty.

2ID Doc
6 years ago

I guess this isn’t aware a company like GE monitors (if they want) every keystroke he makes. My employer has strong enough controls that I cannot send any attachments from my personal email from my company computer, and it is very difficult to use a USB to remove files, found that out when a coworker sent me a book size PDF file and I tried to put on my company USB stick to put it on my PC. So to read the PDF I turn on my work computer at home….

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
6 years ago

“so no, considering someone an “esspionage risk” just b/c theyhave Chinese ethnicity would mot only be racist, but also illegal.”

1. Chinese is a nationality and not a race.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_China_and_Taiwan

Of course all Chinese look the same to virtue-signalers yelling racist.

2. If the decision not to hire someone was based on their close relationship with a group that is known to engage in industrial espionage, it has nothing to do with racism no matter how much idiots yell racist. If the decision not to hire someone was based on eye shape and skin color, it would be racist… but, honestly… who would actually do that?

setnaffa
6 years ago

CH: “If the decision not to hire someone was based on eye shape and skin color, it would be racist… but, honestly… who would actually do that?”

The New York Times, who hired Sarah Jeong: https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2018/08/03/omg-just-when-you-thought-sarah-jeongs-tweets-couldnt-get-more-awkward-for-the-ny-times/

Smokes
Smokes
6 years ago

It’s perfectly legal to discriminate on the basis of race in the United States, the government does it everyday: Title VII, Section 703(i).
Further reading in EEOC Policy Statement 915.027.

Every time I’ve looked around for jobs in the SW I’ve ran into this crap and have been disqualified from at least 15 vacancies I applied to based solely on the fact that enough tribal people applied. 🙄

Oh and HK is a Russian troll. 😎

HK
HK
6 years ago

: Congratulations on twisting my words. Never said any employer is under any “obligation” to hire anyone, never mind “someine from the PRC.” However, you automaticaly equated nationality/ethnicity/race with “espionage risk” i.e., a Chinese American being hired for a “sensitive position” in your op. Obviously you’ve never heard of Robert Hanssen or Aldrich Ames, so there goes that theory. And no, this is not about levying accusations of “racial profiling.” That said, at the end of the day, Wen-Ho Lee wasn’t racially proifiled. He was however, unlawfully discriminated against by his employer by being subjected to unequal terms and conditions of employment based on his race/nationality/ethnicity, which is a violation of state and federal civil rights law.

@chickenhead – Obviously you neither understand federal employment law, nor the literal definition of “race,” which beyond its conventional usage for human taxonomic classification – Caucasian, black, Asian, etc. – can also include ANY group or family of similar human beings as a “race”, hence, the Chinese are just as much a race as Jews are a race and humans are a race of people. To wit: “Race [noun]: a family, tribe, people, or nation belonging to the same stock;
b : a class or kind of people unified by shared interests, habits, or characteristics
3 a : an actually or potentially interbreeding group within a species; also : a taxonomic category (such as a subspecies) representing such a group
b : breed
c : a category of humankind that shares certain distinctive physical traits.(m-w.com).

@smokes: Former EEOC investigator here. Nice attempt at cherry picking and misquoting, but you are flat out wrong and perhaps confused. It is not legal in the U.S. to discriminate on the basis of race in employment, and contrary to your mendacious assertion, no, the U.S. government doesn’t racially discriminate as a matter of course “everyday.” Also, you completely misquoted, misused, and misapplied Title VII’s Section 703(i), which is neither a blanket authorization nor carte blanche given to the U.S. government to racially discriminate against anyone as you so falsely and ridiculously allege. To wit, Section 703(i) is the Indian (Native American) preferential hiring provision and Title exemption clause that allows preferential hiring for Native Americans in, on and around an Indian resevation. This is a situation and location-specific title exemption implemented in 1988 that grants Native Americans seeking hiring on their lands and reservations preferential treatment in hiring to address and eliminate the historical and culturally embedded legacy of anti-Indian prejudice and institutionalized racial discrimination against Native Americans in their own lands. Why you, as a non-Native American, would limit your job search to positions intended for and reserved for Native Americans in, on and around Indian reservations is beyond the pale. That said, you would be well advised as a non-Native American, to expand your job search further afield — like maybe other parts of the state or even elsewhere in the southwest or the U.S.?

HK
HK
6 years ago

– You seem to be confused about the definition of race by trying to separate it from nationality in this context. Fyi, for the purpose of discussion, they are one in the same. That said, using someone’s race/nationality/ethnicity/color/creed/religion, etc., as a red flag in an employment or hiring decision, or as the basis for disparate treatment, or as grounds for an employment action is ILLEGAL in the U.S. You also seem to be conflating the process for acquiring a security clearance with the process of being hired. If the individual is in the running for a Secret or Top Secret security clearance as a DoD contractor or U.S. government employee, they will be routinely and perfunctorily evaluated as an “espionage risk” as a matter of course (I once had a Secret Clearance myself).

That said, as a civilian employee of GE or any of its various subsidiaries and offshoots, that’s just not going to happen. You can’t single out an employee based on their race/nationality/ethnicity as an “espionage risk” without violating the employee’s civil rights. Full stop. If you want to evaluate an employee as a potential “espionage risk” it would only be legal if you did it to EVERY employee as a routine and perfunctory check, just like acquiring a security clearance. However, recognizing that GE and all of its subsidiaries have over 300,000 employees worldwide, well that would be unrealistic as well as prohibitive.

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
6 years ago

“You seem to be confused about the definition of race by trying to separate it from nationality in this context. Fyi, for the purpose of discussion, they are one in the same.”

I am so glad to learn that.

Since race and nationality are the same, all that shuckin’ and jivin’ about white privilage can be ignored.

Good to know. Good to know.

Bonus quote: “humans are a race of people”

That is either brilliant insight or something so amazingly stupid, the internet is dumber for archiving it.

Let’s find out.

For comparison’s sake, could you kindly identify something other than humans which are a race of people?

Smokes
Smokes
6 years ago

HK what the f in the uck are you smoking?

You outed yourself ifty (yes ifty) times over in your last few posts as someone not worthy of argu-scussing this with.

Just for the ho-ho’s thou cause I’m bored and poke bee-hives for fun…

I didn’t quote jack nor shit. Quote my quote… thought so.
You don’t get to explain 703(I) to me, I’m the one who brought it up as a clear example of affirm…. I mean preferent… ummm… discrimination, yeah it’s fucking discrimination. So blanket wrap that carte-blanch and to-wit it up your confused ass buddy. Ditch the thesaurus.com’ing, this is a virtual VFW, we got 0 tolerance for that bullshit.

You don’t even recognize the difference between race and nationality, nor do you correctly label the descendants of the indigenous ones. Either use their formal tribal name or use “Tribal” to generalize. I’m a native American, I was born here and belong to no tribe.

Me: American, native to this country. No tribe, no dash, no part-whatever, A-mer-I-can. When I come into work every morning it’s like this:
https://youtu.be/GSYMqLsrLb4?t=26

Finally take a look around the federal listings occasionally for the SW, there’s an ass-ton of BLM, BIA, etc. positions that use the discriminatory 703(I) and at the grade I have to search at there’s limited choice. But whatever, I’m goin back to American’in the weekend away cause that’s what I do, as an American, native one too.

setnaffa
6 years ago

EEOC also says I’m intimidating cow-orkers if I leave my Bible on my desk…

Liz
Liz
6 years ago

There can be a formal policy not to hire employees who are likely to steal.
They cannot say, as a formal policy, that they will not hire Chinese.
But if Chinese nationals fit under that policy…

Liz
Liz
6 years ago

As a side note,
At the last base the majority of EO complaints were black women against other black women (the CDC was the source of the vast majority of EO complaints at that installation).

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
6 years ago

“EEOC also says I’m intimidating cow-orkers if I leave my Bible on my desk…”

There needs to be a little bit of Bible introduced into the lives of anybody who likes orking cows.

Keep up the good fight!

Out of curiosity, where exactly do you work again?

johnnyboy
johnnyboy
6 years ago

Servicemembers are at risk of losing their security clearance if they marry a foreign national from the designated personnel list if I remember correctly. Prudent move by the military in my opinion, but is that not discrimination based on nationality under the EEOC’s professional opinion?

HK
HK
6 years ago

EEOC has no jurisdiction over U.S. military personnel or federal employees. All such federal-sector EEO complaints must be directed to the respective federal agency’s EEO counselor. Generally the same federal laws apply, however, certain national security, law enforcement and military positions may also have certain BFOQs (Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications) that are legal, e.g., age limitations, height/weight restrictions, physical/mental handicap restrictions, national origin requirements/restrictions, etc.

setnaffa
6 years ago

CH, I used to work in Texas… May get something else by the grace of God…

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
6 years ago

Who cares what regulations say, laws demand, or HK thinks.

If you have a tech company, don’t hire Chinese…

…and if you absolutely positively must have them to do your math or something useful because American universities are only turning out comparitive gender spectrum studies majors, watch the sneakey little Chinese like you would a co-ed through a peephole to make sure none of his little equations are being echoed through a burst transmitter to a China Telecom satallite.

And if anybody accuses you of racism, kick them in the nuts.

And while you are at it, kick anyone in the nuts if they accuse you of racism for not hiring a Muslim to guard your explosives.

Then kick HK in the nuts for making the whole world dumber for having to hear “humans are a race of people”.

johnnyboy
johnnyboy
6 years ago

What if the technology being worked on by a private employer is considered vital for national security? Would the EEOC have any recourse to the employer screening foreign nationals from adversarial nations such as China?

Have you ever witnessed an employer held accountable for adding extra scrutiny to or completely screening out the “Chinese race” from working on anything dealing with trade secrets? I don’t mean US citizens of Chinese origin or heritage. I mean Chinese nationals in the US on a residency basis.

Flyingsword
Flyingsword
6 years ago

To add to this, SEN Dianne Feinstein’s driver, ethnic Chinese man, apparently was Chinese spy working for the senator for 20 years. https://www.rt.com/usa/435075-feinstein-driver-chinese-spy/

setnaffa
6 years ago

While I’m not likely to kick anyone anywhere, I get the point. Everyone has to decide their own tolerance for pain, treason, calumny, and political correctness without interference from some self-appointed humorless harpy masquerading as a commissar. Corporations that fall for that will be out of business in five years, regardless of what political party is in charge..

And, even if only 5% of the stuff in a bowl of Wheaties is a steamingly fragrant offering from your cat’s litterbox, most people are gonna skip it and look for the nearest Denny’s or IHOP. The rest apparently join Antifa.

We all need to stop letting people who reject every external source of morality–and especially the Bible–tell us what is right or wrong. Because governments based on subjective morality alway end up putting people in forced labor camps, rationing toilet paper, and starvation…

HK
HK
6 years ago

All truth be told, I’m not worried about about Chinese or Asians working for defense contractors or hi-tech companies engaging in industrial espionage – especially when not one has ever been caught or convicted of it. What I am more worried about are the Robert Hanssens, the Aldrich Ames and the John Walkers out there with high-level security clearances in positions of trust who are the ultimate wolves in sheeps clothing, engaging in espionage and selling secrets to the enemy while flying under the radar and falsely accusing Chinese and Asians of doing the exact things that they themselves are doing along the way. This kind of deceitful behavior is called psychological projection and “Chickenhead” is a perfect example of it.

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
6 years ago

“especially when not one has ever been caught or convicted of it.”

Let’s do a ten second internet search about that.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Mak

Not one, eh? Hey HK, how about you get back to work glueing soles on shoes or chopping up cats behind the Golden Dragon buffet or whatever it is you do when not speading pro-Chinese propaganda.

As for me, I wonder if I can psychologically project any more Chinese spies.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_spy_cases_in_the_United_States

Actually, you are comparing apples to oranges anyway… or claiming apples don’t exist because there are oranges.

The Cold War produced the examples you gave for reasons rather different than the Chinese are infiltrating American industry.

Both exist and both are problems for different reasons.

I would say nice try… but you are lame.

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
6 years ago

Bonus:

Jerry Chun Shing Lee is the Robert Hanssens/Aldrich Ames of China.

When CIA assets in China started winding up dead and “Jerry” Ching-Chong had a secret list if their real names and identities in his Hong Kong hotel room after suddenly having a lot of cash, investigators started to get suspitious.

“The court documents said Lee told the FBI that he prepared the materials in response to “taskings” from Chinese intelligence agents.”

So it looks like those wild and crazy Chinese can steal American industrial secrets AND betray American intelligence agencies at the same time.

…and pay guys like HK to spead pro-Chinese propaganda.

Fortunately for America, they are getting ripped off.

So maybe HK is a double agent.

Good job HK!

setnaffa
6 years ago

HK is just agitprop associate #67445298.

HK
HK
6 years ago

LOL. Here we go again with more Chickenshit comments. FYI, industrial espionage is par for the course as every company that has anything worth selling does it as a matter of course. It’s all a part of the ‘Great Game’ as well as a cost of doing business.

Selling out your country and fellow Americans on the other hand as a mole and a double agent, as well as cashing in on American assets abroad by ratting them out and getting them executed is the height of perfidy and betraying your country. The damage done by Robert Hanssen, Aldrich Ames, John Walker and other former U.S. government employees transcend any penny ante industrial espionage case. These true blue American buddy fuckers deserved no less than the death penalty for selling out their country and getting people killed out of pure greed. But their lawyers cut a deal instead and now they get to live out the rest of their lives high on the hoof at some minimum security federal Hilton.

Meanwhile, contrary to the bigoted and highly illegal ideations of Mr. Chickenshit, you can’t classify an entire race of persons like the Chinese as a security risk just b/c you’re just a racist arsehole. Btw, ever hear of Executive Order 9066? It was the harebrained scheme concocted racist bigots within FDR’s administration to incarcerate all the Japanese Americans by “evacuating” them from the West Coast and putting them in concentration camps in BFE on the pretext that they were security risks and spies. (Real reason: No reason at all.)

Incidentally, not one person of Japanese descent living in the U.S. was ever charged or convicted of espionage in U.S. courts during all of WW2 while almost 300 young Nisei men died in combat during WW2 serving the United States – their country – with the U.S. Army’s 442nd RCT in Europe. (The U.S. government did end up paying out millions of dollars in reparations to the surviving members of the Japanese-American community in the 1980s during the Reagan Administration to show you how that idiocy ended.)

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
6 years ago

“Meanwhile, contrary to the bigoted and highly illegal ideations of Mr. Chickenshit, you can’t classify an entire race of persons like the Chinese as a security risk just b/c you’re just a racist arsehole.”

HK is not quite bright enough to grasp that not all Asians are Chinese… and Chinese is not a race.

It is possible to fill the Asian quota without hiring a single Chinese person.

Quota filled. Risk mitigated. EEOC happy. Nothing to see here. Move along, citizen.

Also… nice try with the:
Chinese spying isnt bad becuase everyone else does it.

I wish little Billy would hurry up and tell you to jump off a bridge.

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