FBI Details China Scheme For Stealing U.S. Military Secrets

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned Americans to be wary of attempts China by China to engage in industrial espionage and steal military secrets and asked them to report any such attempt to its 56 field offices nationwide.

Photo Insert: China’s attempt to steal the technology for syntactic foam and tried to secure it through employees of a company called Trelleborg USA.

In the Oct. 12, 2021 (Oct. 13, 2021) podcast of Inside the FBI hosted by Steve Lewis, the agency discussed the predatory tactics the Chinese government uses against US interests and how companies, universities, and citizens can protect themselves.

”The Chinese Communist Party has plotted out clear and ambitious plans to put China on top of the world— both its economy and its military—by 2049 and these plans are troubling to the FBI and many others because the actions the Chinese government is taking often disregard laws and other standards. The Chinese Communist Party seeks to correct what they see as sort of a historical injustice, and that is sort of the downfall of the Chinese nation and Chinese society that occurred between 1840 and 1940,” the FBI said.

China launched the Thousand Talents program to recruit people who have insight into or expertise in certain fields, products, or technologies. The Chinese government gives participants money and perks if they bring technology with military value to China, the FBI said.

China is also threatening businesses through network intrusions, like the 2017 breach of the credit reporting firm Equifax. In that case, members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), stole the sensitive personal information of nearly 150 million Americans. Trade secrets and information with intelligence value eventually end up in Beijing.

A classic case was China’s attempt to steal the technology for syntactic foam, which is incredibly strong, it’s extremely lightweight, and provides buoyancy, meaning it helps submarines float. The foam is used in things like the hulls of submarines or the structure of stealth destroyers.

China sought the technology in 2012 and tried to secure it through Shan Shi, a professor at Harbin Engineering University, who was in Houston, Texas. He went after employees of a company called Trelleborg USA.

Trelleborg is headquartered in Sweden. Shan offered big salaries for 10 Trelleborg USA employees working in labs to develop microspheres crucial for making syntactic foam but only two joined him. For two employees, the offer was too good to refuse.

Eventually, the FBI got wind of the scheme and busted Shan, who was sentenced in 2019 to19 months in prison.

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