US Accuses Six Chinese Citizens of Stealing Silicon Valley Tech Secrets

The US Department of Justice on Tuesday unsealed an indictment that charges six Chinese nationals with stealing technologies developed by Silicon Valley companies.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Among the accused are three professors with US degrees in engineering who face charges of economic espionage for the benefit of the Chinese government.

"The 32-count indictment, which had previously been sealed, charges a total of six individuals with economic espionage and theft of trade secrets for their roles in a long-running effort to obtain U.S. trade secrets for the benefit of universities and companies controlled by the [Chinese] government."

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin stressed that the alleged theft of US trade secrets by Chinese citizens "imposes great costs on American businesses" and "ultimately harms U.S. interests worldwide."

According to DoJ information, two of the accused had worked with US technology companies to use their access and knowledge of sensitive technologies, such as the one that filters wireless signals in mobile devices, to pass secrets on to a firm in China that used the information to equip a production facility.

The indictment is the latest in a series of economic espionage cases unveiled by US authorities over the past years, although cases against scientists are rare. Beijing has denied stealing US secrets.