US accuses 10 Chinese of stealing aerospace technology



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The United States has indicted 10 Chinese, including two intelligence agents, for stealing technology from American and French aerospace companies by hacking their computers.

The charges were handed down 20 days after the Ministry of Justice had obtained the unprecedented extradition of a senior Chinese intelligence official in Belgium so that he would be tried in the United States for having led the so-called state effort to steal secrets from the US aerospace industry.

The Ministry of Justice said the Chinese Ministry of State Security, through its unit in Jiangsu Province, had launched an effort to steal the technology behind a double-flow engine used by American and European airliners.

The engine was developed through a partnership between a French aerospace manufacturer with an office in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, and an American company, he said.

The companies were not named, but previous indictments were against GE Aviation, one of the world 's leading aircraft engine manufacturers, based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The French group Safran, which worked with GE Aviation on engine development, has an office in Suzhou.

The operation was first made public in September when the United States indicted a US-Chinese engineer for helping to steal files under the direction of a senior official of the state security bureau. Jiangsu.

Then, on October 10, the Justice Ministry announced that he had obtained the extradition of Xu Yanjun, deputy director of the division of Jiangsu office in Belgium, where he had apparently been attracted and arrested in the setting of a counterintelligence operation.

Tuesday's indictment cited the two officials from the Jiangsu security bureau who apparently worked under Xu, six computer hackers and two men who worked for the French company.

The case has added to rising tensions between Beijing and Washington over geopolitics, commerce, computer hacking and industrial espionage.

After the arrest of Xu, China said that the United States "made something out of nothing".

The new charges detail efforts to use malware and phishing techniques to hack target computers and remove data on engines and parts.

"At the time of the trespbading, a Chinese state-owned aerospace company was working on developing a comparable engine for commercial aircraft built in China and elsewhere," said the Department of Justice.

"For the third time since September alone, the National Security Division and its US lawyers have filed lawsuits against Chinese JSSD intelligence officers and those working under their direction and control for stealing American intellectual property. said Deputy Attorney General John Demers.

"This is only the beginning – together with our federal partners, we will redouble our efforts to protect America's ingenuity and investments."

The FBI worked with the French General Directorate of Homeland Security.

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