A Chinese National, who attended college in the United States, was given an eight-year prison sentence on Jan. 25. The man was charged with espionage after gathering information for the Chinese regime about scientists and engineers in the United States with knowledge about aerospace and satellite technology.
Ji Chaoqun, 31, was convicted by a federal jury in September 2022. Charges against him include one count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government, specifically the People’s Republic of China, without first notifying the Attorney General; one count of acting as an agent of the People’s Republic of China without first notifying the Attorney General; and one count of making a material false statement to the U.S. Army, according to a press release by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman.
According to evidence presented at the trial, Ji worked at the direction of high-level intelligence officers in the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security, or MSS. He was approached by agency operatives in 2013, shortly before coming to the United States to study engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
According to prosecutors, when he returned to China for the winter break he was given first-class treatment by members of the MSS agency, and eventually bestowed with a top secret contract. This involved providing an intelligence officer with biographical information on certain individuals for possible recruitment by the JSSD and swearing an oath of allegiance to the agency’s cause.
The individuals included Chinese or Taiwanese nationals who were working as engineers and scientists in the United States. Several of the targets specialized in aerospace, while seven of them were employees of U.S. defense contractors.
Reports on the individuals were then mailed back to his handlers, disguised as “midterm exam” questions, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas.
A year after graduating from college in 2015, Ji enlisted as a reservist in the U.S. Army. He entered the military under a program called MAVNI, which recruits foreign nationals with skills deemed vital to the national interest.
Ji was found guilty on account of providing false information on a government background form. The form inquired about any contact with foreign intelligence agencies, which he denied. He failed to again disclose his ties with foreign intelligence in a subsequent interview with a U.S. Army officer.
Further evidence uncovered that Ji met with an undercover law enforcement agent who was posing as a representative of the MSS in 2018. He told the agent that he could access security clearance due to his military identification, enabling him to take photos of “Roosevelt-class” aircraft carriers at a military base.
He added that upon obtaining U.S. citizenship and security clearance through the MAVNI program, he would seek a job in cybersecurity at the CIA, FBI, or NASA, the press release continued.
This would then grant him access to all their databases, including those that contained scientific research.
The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, U.S. Attorney John R. Lausch Jr. for the Northern District of Illinois, and Special Agent in Charge Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler Jr. of the FBI Chicago Field Office.
The case was investigated by the FBI, in conjunction with assistance provided by the U.S. Army 902nd Military Intelligence Group.
Prosecutors on the case included Assistant U.S. Attorneys Vikas Didwania, Barry Jonas for the Northern District of Illinois, and Senior Trial Attorney Heather Schmidt of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
