According to the Washington Post article, “U.S. charges American engineer, Chinese businessman with stealing GE’s trade secrets,” economic espionage from Chinese entities is said to cost the U.S. government hundreds of billions of dollars a year. “The link between the alleged theft of trade secrets and China’s economic program illustrates why the Justice Department sees this as a national security priority,” said John Carlin.
In a 14-count indictment, U.S. authorities alleged that an American engineer, Xiaoqing Zheng of Niskayuna of New York and Zhaoxi Zhang of China’s Liaoning province teamed up in a conspiracy to steal millions of dollars’ worth of trade secrets from General Electric in order to benefit the government of China and personal business interests.