A US military reservist is accused of espionage for China

WASHINGTON – A US Army reservist from China was arrested Tuesday over allegations that he secretly provided information about US defense personnel to a Chinese intelligence agent, security officials said. Law enforcement. The Chinese government was trying to recruit them as informants, they said.

The suspect, 27-year-old Ji Chaoqun, was arrested in Chicago, where he attended high school before joining the Army Reserve, and charged with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA.

According to an F.B.I, an official of the regional section of the Chinese Ministry of State Security, which collects domestic and foreign intelligence, was also arrested. affidavit. The officer, identified only as intelligence officer A, was arrested before April. We do not know where he was arrested or by whom.

A F.B.I. The arrest of a Chinese intelligence agent would send a strong signal to China that US counter-espionage agents are heavily focused on its US operations. Such an arrest would also be an embarrassment for the Chinese intelligence services, revealing negligent commercial operations and exposing operations in the United States.

"By collecting this information for a branch of the Chinese government in the United States, Ji acted knowingly and illegally as an agent of a foreign power," said Andrew K. McKay, a F.B.I. special agent, wrote in the affidavit.

No lawyer has been registered for Mr. Ji in court documents.

Chinese espionage has been one of the main concerns of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice and the Counterintelligence Division of F.B.I. The Justice Ministry has also cracked down on FARA violations, including the convictions of former President of the Trump campaign, Paul Manafort, for his consultancy work for Russia's former pro-Russian president.

Mr. Ji, who was born in Beijing, met with three Chinese intelligence agents while he was still studying in China. Using a pseudonym, his main teacher posed as a teacher and the men said they were members of a confidential unit and made oblique references to spies, according to court documents.

The Ministry of State Security has maintained an extensive network of intelligence collectors inside and outside of China. Some gather information openly through their positions as attachés and academics and others secretly as spies.

It is unusual for the regional department of the SJS, the Ministry of Security of Jiangsu Province, to lead an agent in the United States, former officials said.

Mr. Ji arrived in the United States on a student visa in August 2013 to obtain his Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. During his school years, he traveled to China three times and met with his MSc. contact. Once they met at a hotel and another time at the local state security office.

Before Mr. Ji graduated in 2015, his contact asked him to purchase background check data from eight naturalized US citizens born in Taiwan or China. They all worked or had recently retired in jobs in the science and technology sector. Several have specialized in the aerospace industry and seven others have worked for defense companies, law enforcement officials said.

"They just wanted me to buy documents on their behalf," Ji told the F.B.I. from his masters, adding that they had told him that making payments for reports from China would be too expensive.

The F.B.I. argues that the M.S.S. was "testing Ji's skills as a potential asset by asking him to buy these background checks."

Mr. Ji sent the files to his manager and called them "mid-term test questions".

He also asked an engineer to provide technical information to an anonymous aircraft engine supplier, a defense supplier who conducts aeronautical research for the military. He then provided the information to the Chinese government.

After graduating in 2015, Mr. Ji is enlisted in the Army Reserves in the spring of 2016 as part of a program allowing immigrants to qualify for US citizenship in exchange of their military service.

As part of his claim, Mr. Ji lied about his contacts with Chinese intelligence agents, according to court documents.

The army has begun unload such recruits this year before qualifying for citizenship, lawyers said. He recently stopped the rejections.