(Bloomberg) -- A Chinese national living in Chicago was arrested on charges of helping a Chinese intelligence gathering agency recruit U.S. defense industry scientists and engineers.
The charges come as the Trump administration and China are embroiled in a trade war that grew partly from U.S. claims that the Chinese have been stealing American intellectual property.
Ji Chaoqun, 27, was charged with acting as illegal agent of the Chinese government after supplying the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security with biographical information on eight people for possible recruitment, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday by U.S. Attorney John Lausch Jr. in Chicago.
Some of the eight were Chinese nationals working for U.S. defense contractors, according to court filings. Ji came to the U.S. in 2013 to study electrical engineering, and in 2016, enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves. He made an initial appearance in federal court and was kept in custody.
To contact the reporter on this story: Janan Hanna in Chicago at jhanna31@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Wollman at ewollman@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg
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