US justice department indicts Chinese military officers over economic espionage

20 May 2014

1

The US justice department indicted five Chinese military officers for data theft from six US companies and unions on Monday, triggering a major escalation of tensions with China over economic espionage.

In an announcement, attorney general Eric Holder said the US would for the first time seek to bring officials of a foreign government to the US to face charges of infiltrating US computer networks to steal data beneficial to US trade competitors. To drive in the message, the justice department also went so far as printing ''wanted'' posters.

The charges come as revelations about the extent of National Security Agency surveillance from whistleblower Edward Snowden showed at least some US surveillance came with an economic benefit.

According to Holder, the range of trade secrets and other sensitive business information stolen in this case was significant and demanded an aggressive response.

While suspicions about government sponsorship of corporate data theft had clouded US-China relations for years, it was for the first time that the US had formally accused officials from China, or any other government, of involvement.

The accused have been identified as Wang Don, Sun Kailiang, Wen Zinyu, Huang Zhenyu, Gu Chunhui. Chunhui had been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pennsylvania on 31 counts of espionage. 
 
Meanwhile, Chinese government officials on Monday strongly rebuked the US over its claims of cyber-spying by five Chinese military officers, alleging that the justice department indictment was based on ''fabricated facts'' and would jeopardise US-China relations.

''The Chinese government, the Chinese military and their relevant personnel have never engaged or participated in cyber theft of trade secrets,'' foreign ministry spokesperson Qin Gang said in a statement. ''The US accusation against Chinese personnel is purely ungrounded and absurd.''

The Chinese government has called for the US indictment, which was unsealed on Monday, to be withdrawn. Chinese officials added that they would suspend activities of the China-US Cyber Working Group, which was set up last year to address allegations of hacking.

Attorney general Eric H Holder Jr said at a news conference in Washington that the hacked companies and organisations included US Steel Corp, Westinghouse, Alcoa, Allegheny Technologies, the United Steel Workers Union and US subsidiaries of SolarWorld, a German company.

Holder added that in certain cases, the five Chinese officers stole trade secrets and in other cases they stole ''sensitive, internal communications'' providing companies with valuable information on the strategies or vulnerabilities of US competitors that the Chinese were negotiating with.

Business History Videos

History of hovercraft Part 3...

Today I shall talk a bit more about the military plans for ...

By Kiron Kasbekar | Presenter: Kiron Kasbekar

History of hovercraft Part 2...

In this episode of our history of hovercraft, we shall exam...

By Kiron Kasbekar | Presenter: Kiron Kasbekar

History of Hovercraft Part 1...

If you’ve been a James Bond movie fan, you may recall seein...

By Kiron Kasbekar | Presenter: Kiron Kasbekar

History of Trams in India | ...

The video I am presenting to you is based on a script writt...

By Aniket Gupta | Presenter: Sheetal Gaikwad

view more