https://www.zerohedge.com/poli...ting-nuclear-missile

A Chinese-born researcher has been arrested for allegedly stealing trade secret technologies developed for the U.S. government to detect nuclear missile launches and to track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Chenguang Gong, 57, of San Jose, California, was arrested in San Jose on Feb. 6, prosecutors said.

Mr. Gong became a U.S. citizen in 2011. He got his master’s degree in electrical engineering from Clemson University and completed some work toward a doctorate at Stanford University, according to court documents.

From January 2023 to April 2023, Mr. Gong worked as an engineer for a research and development company based in Malibu, California. The company was referred to only as the “victim company” by the DOJ and in court documents.

Court documents said much of the company’s work—the development of infrared sensor technology for space-based and military missions for missile detection—was funded through contacts with the Pentagon and other government contracts.

Mr. Gong allegedly transferred 3,600 files from his work laptop to three personal storage devices from March 2023 to April 2023, according to court documents. Hundreds of documents marked as confidential or proprietary belonging to the company were discovered on devices taken from his temporary residence in Thousand Oaks, California, following an FBI search in May 2023.

The DOJ said the technology allegedly stolen by Mr. Gong would be “dangerous to U.S. national security if obtained by international actors.”

“Many of the files Gong allegedly transferred contained proprietary and trade secret information related to the development and design of a readout integrated circuit that allows space-based systems to detect missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles while providing resilience and a readout integrated circuit that allows aircraft to track incoming threats in low visibility environments,” the DOJ stated.

Other files were related to the development of the company’s “next-generation sensors,” which can “detect low observable targets while demonstrating improved survivability in strategic space applications,” the court document says.

The information Mr. Gong allegedly stole was among the company’s “most important trade secrets,” worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the DOJ said, adding that some of the files were marked “EXPORT CONTROLLED.”

“The theft of trade secrets, especially of sensitive military technology, undermines our national security, erodes U.S. competitiveness in the global market, and harms the businesses and individuals who have invested time, resources, and creativity into developing innovative technologies,” Donald Alway, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said in a statement.

China
The FBI also uncovered Mr. Gong’s employment history in China. For three years in the 1990s, Mr. Gong was a “government employee” of a provincial-level association under the leadership of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang, according to court documents.

Before joining the Malibu-based company last year, Mr. Gong worked for “a number of prominent U.S. technology companies, as well as an international defense, aerospace, and security company,” according to court documents.

While employed in the United States, Mr. Gong repeatedly contacted Chinese authorities. According to court documents, he submitted “numerous applications” for China’s “Talent Programs” from 2014 to 2022.

“We will do everything to protect our nation’s security, including from foreign threats,” Martin Estrada, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement.

“We know that foreign actors, including the PRC [People’s Republic of China], are actively seeking to steal our technology, but we will remain vigilant against this threat ... by safeguarding the innovations of American businesses and researchers.”


More at link

I suspect that it's nigh-impossible for a private company to do a full background check on someone's history in China. Even if the Chinese government let a company access some info on a person, it won't necessarily be accurate or comprehensive info.

If the info was part of the company's contracts with the Pentagon, one would assume that this would come with some sort of security clearance requirement. And that would involve a significantly deeper background investigation by DCSA as part of obtaining a clearance, which would have greater reach.

However, based on the details in the article, it sounds like the information he stole wasn't specifically classified or directly government-related, and this is just a case of trade secret theft of the private company's non-classified info, with potentially some peripheral implications for national defense but a few steps removed from anything actually directly related. So now we're back to just having to rely on the background investigation capabilities of a private company, with limited reach into China.

When are we going to learn?

China is our enemy and having the enemy work for you is just stupid

If we refuse to educate them at our schools and refuse to hire them, they will have to find another company to steal from

He should be in an isolated jail cell at Groom Lake never to see the light of day.

China is in this for the long haul and we keep thinking the next 3 months is a long time.

They give out WAY too many security clearances these days is the real problem.

This guy probably passed his background checks with flying colors, but that doesn’t detect that he’s some sort of Chicom spy necessarily.

The Chinese have turned this into an art form.