Chinese national arrested for "spying on US engineers"

A Chinese man was arrested for allegedly spying on US engineers and scientists on behalf of Beijing, US prosecutors said.

Ji Chaoqun, 27, was arrested in Chicago and accused of acting as an illegal foreign agent in the United States, according to the US Attorney's Office.

Mr. Ji came to the United States in 2013 to study Electrical Engineering and enlisted in the US Army Reserves in 2016.

He reportedly sought to provide details on eight people for recruitment.

Mr. Ji is accused of working for a senior intelligence official, according to a lawsuit filed in a Chicago court.

Prosecutors say he has targeted other Chinese nationals who were working as engineers and scientists, some of whom were US defense contractors, for potential recruitment.

He arrived from Beijing in August 2013 on a student visa and studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. He then obtained a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering in 2015.

Mr. Ji served in the US Army Reserve in 2016 and "expressly denied having any contact with a foreign government in the last seven years" when applying for a program in the US Army.

Later, he did not reveal his relationship with the intelligence officer in question during an interview with a US military officer, according to prosecutors.

What is the Mavni program?

Mr. Ji joined the US Army Reserves as part of the Mavni program, which accelerates the citizenship of some immigrants with critical skills in languages ​​and medicine and recruited into military service.

Nearly 11,000 immigrants have joined the US armed forces as part of the Mavni program since its launch in 2008.

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The program was officially suspended in 2016 for security reasons and the Pentagon imposed a tighter verification process on hundreds of recruits who had already joined Mavni.

A group of these recruits who reported being suddenly released from service filed a lawsuit against the US military in federal court earlier this year.

The US military has since suspended involuntary referrals from Mavni recruits and said it was considering "conducting a review of the administrative separation process," according to the New York Times.