CHINA-US: CHINESE NATIONAL CAUGHT IN US FOR ESPIONAGE

27-year old Ji Chaoqun, a Chinese citizen living in Chicago was arrested on September 25, 2018 for allegedly spying, including by helping with the recruitment of U.S. engineers, defense contractors and scientists for intelligence services in China. The US Department of Justice revealed that Ji Chaoqun worked at the direction of a high-level intelligence officer in the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security, a provincial department of China's Ministry of State Security (MoSS).

Ji Chaoqun was tasked with providing the intelligence officer with biographical information on eight individuals for possible recruitment by the JSSD.  The individuals included Chinese nationals who were working as engineers and scientists in the United States, some of whom were U.S. defense contractors. According to the complaint, Ji Chaoqun was born in China and arrived in the United States in 2013 on an F1 Visa, for the purpose of studying electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.  In 2016, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves as an E4 Specialist under the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) program, which authorizes the U.S. Armed Forces to recruit certain legal aliens whose skills are considered vital to the national interest.  In his application to participate in the MAVNI program, Ji Chaoqun specifically denied having had contact with a foreign government within the past seven years.  In a subsequent interview with a U.S. Army officer, he again failed to disclose his relationship and contacts with the intelligence officer. The U.S. Army 902nd Military Intelligence Group provided valuable assistance.  The government’s case is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Shoba Pillay of the Northern District of Illinois who said at the hearing that Ji faces up to 10 years in federal prison if convicted on the one count. There was no answer at a number for the Chinese consulate in Chicago on September 25.







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