A former engineer from a Chinese research institute was sentenced to death for having sold classified documents to foreign spy agencies, the Chinese authorities said.
After having resigned from the Institute, the researcher, identified by his surname Liu, proposed a plan “carefully designed” to sell information to foreign agencies, according to an article published Wednesday by the Chinese Ministry of State Security.
The ministry did not appoint the former Liu employer or foreign groups who would have bought his equipment.
The announcement comes among the growing warnings of China that its citizens are co -opted by foreign entities to serve as spies.
“Desperados who want to take shortcuts in paradise will all have consequences,” said the ministry in Wednesday.
By believing that he had been unjustly treated at the Institute, Liu saved a large quantity of classified equipment before his departure, with the intention of using it to take revenge and sing, said the ministry.
He then joined an investment company and, after the failure of the investments led him to go, approached a foreign spy agency which obtained the equipment of him at a “very low price”, according to the ministry.
This agency then reduced contact with Liu, added the ministry, and tried to sell information abroad.
“During half years old, he secretly traveled in many countries and seriously disclosed the secrets of our country,” said the article.
Liu, who confessed after being arrested, was stripped of political rights for life.
Beijing was increasingly wary of spying and warned that its citizens are recruited by foreign spy agencies trying to secure Chinese state secrets.
Last November, a former employee of a Chinese state agency was sentenced to death after his USB work work was seized by foreign spies and he became their “puppet”, according to Chinese authorities.
In February of last year, the Australian writer Yang Hengjun, known to have blogged human rights issues in China, was sentenced to death suspended for charges of spying. This sentence has been confirmed and Yang remains behind bars in China, despite the Australian leaders calling for his release.
The concerns about Chinese influence and infiltration operations are also being prepared among the governments of the world, several of which have intensified in recent years arrests of Chinese nationals for charges of espionage.
