"US Charges Two With Stealing Trade Secrets For China"

A Chinese businessman and an ex-General Electric (GE) engineer have been charged by the U.S. Justice Department with economic espionage and conspiring to steal GE’s trade secrets to benefit China.

Xiaoqing Zheng, 56, of Niskayuna, New York, is accused of exploiting his position in GE to steal and transmit propriety information on turbine technologies to Zhaoxi Zhang, 47, of Liaoning Province, China, according to the 14-count indictment unsealed Tuesday.

“The indictment alleges a textbook example of the Chinese government’s strategy to rob American companies of their intellectual property and to replicate their products in Chinese factories, enabling Chinese companies to replace the American company first in the Chinese market and later worldwide,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. “We will not stand idly by while the world’s second-largest economy engages in state-sponsored theft.”