A former Boeing engineer was arrested in the United States yesterday for allegedly stealing space shuttle secrets for China, in a case likely to put further strain on relations between the two nations.

Dongfan “Greg” Chung was one of four people, including a Pentagon official with a top security clearance, taken into custody in two separate cases of alleged espionage for China. The second case involved data on US military sales to Taiwan.

The arrests came a month after US counter-intelligence officials told a congressional hearing that China’s aggressive spying, computer hacking and technology thefts posed a significant threat to US national security.

The Chinese-born Mr Chung, 72, a naturalised US citizen, was employed by Rockwell International from 1973 until its defence and space business was acquired by Boeing in 1996. He retired from the company in 2002. He returned to Boeing the following year to work as a contractor until September 2006. The indictment alleges that he took Boeing trade secrets relating to the space shuttle, the C17 military transport aircraft and the Delta IV rocket for China’s benefit.

“Certain foreign governments are committed to obtaining the American trade secrets that can advance the development of their military capabilities. Today’s case demonstrates that the Justice Department is equally committed to foiling those efforts through the arrest and prosecution of those who conduct espionage at the expense of our national security,” Kenneth Wainstein, Assistant Attorney-General for National Security, said.

The investigation grew out of a case against the Chinese-born defence contractor Chi Mak, who was convicted last year of conspiring to provide details of US submarine and warship technology to China. Mak and his wife, Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, as well as his brother, Tai Mak, and relatives Fuk Li and Billy Mak, were arrested as part of the spy ring in 2005.

Tai Mak and Fuk Li were picked up at Los Angeles airport on their way to Hong Kong with a computer disk that US officials said contained restricted technology for the US Navy’s Quiet Electric Drive technology. A Chinese Ministry of State Security official was also arrested at the airport as he tried to videotape the couple’s arrest, but was later released.

Mr Chung, the former Boeing engineer, was picked up without incident yesterday at his home in Orange County, California, and was charged with economic espionage and acting as an unregistered foreign agent of China. According to the indictment, individuals in the Chinese aviation industry began sending Mr Chung “tasking” letters as early as 1979. Over the years the letters allegedly directed him to collect technological information relating to the Space Shuttle as well as military and civilian projects. In one letter he allegedly said that he wanted to contribute to the “motherland”.

From 1985 to 2003 he made multiple trips to China to lecture on space shuttle technology and met Chinese agents there.

In contacts with his handlers Mr Chung allegedly said that the information he had sent to China included 24 manuals relating to the B-1 bomber.

In the second case, the FBI arrested Tai Shen Kuo, a Taiwanese-born New Orleans businessman, and Yu Xin Kang, a Chinese national also of New Orleans, along with Gregg William Bergersen, a weapons systems policy analyst at the Pentagon’s defence security cooperation agency in Alexandria, Virginia.

Court documents said that Mr Kuo, working under the direction of an unnamed Chinese official, cultivated friendships with Mr Bergersen and other US officials to gain access to defence secrets, particularly US military sales to Taiwan. Mr Bergersen is charged with providing classified information to Mr Kuo.

Growing threat

3,000: The number of companies in the US that the FBI suspects of collecting information for China

30%: Estimated increase in Chinese espionage in Silicon Valley, California, during 2005

Source: Times archives

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