A 59-year-old U.S. citizen who immigrated from the Folks’s Republic of China (PRC) has been sentenced to 4 years in jail for conspiring to behave as a spy for the nation and sharing delicate details about his employer with China’s principal civilian intelligence company.
Ping Li, 59, of Wesley Chapel, Florida, is claimed to have served as a cooperative contact for the Ministry of State Safety (MSS) as early as August 2012, working at their behest to acquire data that is of curiosity to the Chinese language authorities. Li was employed at telecom big Verizon and later at data expertise service firm Infosys.
Along with 4 years of jail time, Li has been handed a $250,000 wonderful and three years of supervised launch. He was charged with appearing as an agent of the PRC with out notification to the Legal professional Common in late July 2024. Li subsequently pleaded responsible to the fees a month later.
“The MSS typically makes use of ‘cooperative contacts’ positioned in nations exterior of the PRC in furtherance of their intelligence objectives, which embody acquiring data regarding international company or industrial issues, international politicians or intelligence officers, and data regarding PRC political dissidents residing in these nations,” the U.S. Division of Justice (DoJ) mentioned.
“These cooperative contacts help the MSS in a wide range of methods, together with by conducting analysis on matters of curiosity to the PRC that can be utilized to additional the MSS’s mission.”
As revealed within the sentencing memorandum, Li obtained data pertaining to Chinese language dissidents and pro-democracy advocates, members of the Falun Gong spiritual motion, and U.S.-based non-governmental organizations, and shared them with two MSS officers, one in all whom he befriended throughout highschool and faculty in China.
He has additionally been discovered to have shared coaching purposes utilized by Verizon for brand new staff, in addition to supplies referring to cybersecurity coaching, the SolarWinds cyber assault on the U.S. authorities in 2021, and publicly out there data relating to a number of politicians. The small print have been transmitted utilizing varied nameless Gmail and Yahoo! accounts.
The event comes because the U.S. authorities is actively investigating a widespread cyber espionage marketing campaign undertaken by a Chinese language state-sponsored menace actor known as Salt Storm concentrating on main telecommunications corporations within the nation.
Earlier this August, the DoJ additionally convicted Shujun Wang, a resident of Queens, New York, for appearing and conspiring to behave as a covert Chinese language agent whereas beginning a pro-democracy advocacy outfit named Memorial Basis opposing the present communist regime in China.
“This defendant infiltrated a New York-based advocacy group by masquerading as a pro-democracy activist all whereas covertly gathering and reporting delicate details about its members to the PRC’s intelligence service,” Assistant Legal professional Common Matthew G. Olsen of the DoJ’s Nationwide Safety Division mentioned on the time.
In response to the China Risk Snapshot evaluation launched by the Home Committee on Homeland Safety (CHS) final month, there have been over 55 instances of Chinese language Communist Celebration (CCP)-related espionage throughout 20 states within the U.S. from January 2021 to October 2024.
This contains the transmission of delicate navy data to the PRC, theft of commerce secrets and techniques to advance its objectives, transnational repression schemes to focus on PRC dissidents, and obstruction of justice.
“Between 2000 and 2023, there have been 224 reported incidents of Chinese language espionage directed on the U.S.,” the report mentioned. “About 80% of financial espionage prosecutions allege conduct that will profit the Chinese language state, and there may be no less than some nexus to China in round 60% of all commerce secret theft instances.”
