Xin Wang’s arrest comes as US-China relations deteriorate (Representation)
Los Angeles:
A Chinese scientist suspected of spying was arrested in Los Angeles this week while trying to leave the United States, officials said on Thursday.
Xin Wang was arrested on June 7 as he was about to board a flight to Tianjin, China, the United States Attorney’s Office in San Francisco and the local FBI office said in a joint statement.
Authorities said Wang entered the United States in March 2019 posing as a medical researcher seeking to do scientific research at the University of California at San Francisco.
In fact, according to officials, he admitted, when questioned by customs officials and border patrol officers at the airport, that he was an officer of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and employed by a military university laboratory.
Wang, according to court documents, told CBP officers that he had been instructed by his superiors in China to observe the layout of the UCSF laboratory and to report information on how to reproduce it in China.
“CBP received reports that Wang had UCSF studies with him which he was taking to share with his APL colleagues, and he sent research to his laboratory in China by email”, officials said in their statement.
“Wang also told his supervising professor at UCSF that he had reproduced some of this professor’s work in the laboratory in China,” they added.
Part of the work of the UCSF laboratory has been funded by grants from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said federal officials.
Wang, they added, also wiped his personal phone of WeChat messaging content before arriving at the airport for his return flight.
He has been charged with visa fraud and faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $ 250,000 if convicted.
His arrest comes as relations between the United States and China have deteriorated in recent months due to the COVID-19 pandemic and trade problems.
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
