US Department of Justice: Chinese scientist, economic espionage: Haitao Xiang, Thousand Talents Program

US Department of Justice: Chinese scientist, economic espionage: Haitao Xiang, Thousand Talents Program

US Department of Justice:

January 6th,

A former Monsanto Chinese scientist has announced that he has admitted that he has “collusioned economic espionage for the Chinese government.”

US agricultural giant Monsanto
Former Chinese scientist

A former Chinese scientist is one of the winners of China’s Thousand Talents Program.

Missouri, USA
Chesterfield
Haitao Xiang

Chinese defendant Mukai, who lived in Chesterfield, Missouri, USA

Haitao Xiang, 44 years old

2008
He received his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and joined Monsanto.

He was “in charge of digital agriculture, fertilizer and nutrient management research” and obtained three US patents.

2017
He is a researcher with high technology, who was selected as one of the “Thousand People Plan”.

The Epoch Times

https://www.epochtimes.jp/2022/01/84392.html

Chinese National Pleads Guilty to Economic Espionage Conspiracy

Xiang Haitao, 44,
a Chinese national formerly residing in Chesterfield, Missouri,

pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit economic espionage.

According to court documents,
Xiang conspired to steal a trade secret

from Monsanto,
an international company based in St. Louis, for the purpose of benefitting a foreign government, namely the People’s Republic of China.

“Despite Xiang’s agreements to protect Monsanto’s intellectual property and repeated training on his obligations to do so, Xiang has now admitted that

he stole a trade secret from Monsanto, transferred it to a memory card and attempted to take it to the People’s Republic of China for the benefit of Chinese government,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen.

“With his guilty plea, Xiang is now being held accountable for this unlawful conduct.”

“Mr. Xiang used his insider status at a major international company to steal valuable trade secrets for use in his native China,” said U.S. Attorney Sayler Fleming.

“We cannot allow U.S. citizens or foreign nationals to hand sensitive business information over to competitors in other countries, and we will continue our vigorous criminal enforcement of economic espionage and trade secret laws.

These crimes present a danger to the U.S. economy and jeopardize our nation’s leadership in innovation and our national security.”

“The American worker suffers when adversaries, like the Government of China, steal technology to grow their economies,” said Assistant Director Alan E. Kohler Jr..

The FBI will continue investigating
the theft of technology from American companies because economic security is national security.

OPA | Department of Justice

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chinese-national-pleads-guilty-economic-espionage-conspiracy