According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), a former Canadian Space Agency (CSA) engineer was charged with breach of trust allegedly working on behalf of a Chinese aerospace company.
Wanping Zheng, 61, was charged by a civil servant. December 7th As a result of the RCMP investigation, it was pointed out that “illegal acts” were carried out in parallel with the duties at CSA.
“According to the facts, Mr. Chung used his position as a CSA engineer to negotiate an agreement to set up a satellite base facility in Iceland,” RCMP said. statement December 8th.
“He is alleged to have acted on behalf of the Chinese aerospace company.”
According to the invoice filed in court, the alleged offenses were between July 1, 2018 and May 30, 2019, at CSA headquarters in Brosal and St. Hubert, Toronto, Ottawa, and Ontario. Occurred elsewhere. And Quebec.
According to the RCMP, Chung, who lives in Brosal, a suburb of Montreal, was arrested on December 7 and released on December 15 with a promise to appear in a court in Longueuil, Kenya.
so statement On December 7, the CSA said Chung’s employment ended in 2019 after concerns about private activities other than Chung’s employment emerged.
“CSA takes information and people’s security very seriously,” said the space agency. “CSA has taken steps such as internal investigations and restricting access to information. As more measures were taken, employment was suspended in 2019.”
RCMP said the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) began its investigation in October 2019 after being warned by the CSA’s internal security team. INSET investigates activities carried out by or on behalf of foreign parties that endanger Canada’s economy and institutions.
Chung’s allegations have not been verified in court. “We can’t comment further on the issue in court,” the CSA said.
The increasing threat posed by foreign nationals, especially China and Russia, to Canada’s national security has been repeatedly warned by intelligence agencies.
David Vigneault, Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Annual report In 2020, announced in April, “CSIS has observed espionage and foreign intervention at a level not seen since the Cold War.”
“In 2020, the People’s Republic of China, Russia, and other foreign states continued to secretly collect Canadian political, economic, and military intelligence through targeted threat activities to support their national development goals.” Said CSIS’s annual report.
September 2019, Cameron Jay OrtizThe former Secretary of the RCMP’s National Intelligence Coordination Center (NICC) was detained for planning to divulge secrets to unnamed recipients and provide additional information to unspecified foreign entities.
As NICC Director at the time, Ortis had access to some of Canada’s most sensitive information. He faces 10 crimes under criminal and information security laws and is detained in Ottawa prison as his complex case progresses.
The United States faces a threat similar to that demonstrated in a recent incident by Chinese intelligence agency Xu Yan Jun, recruiting spies and his plans to steal sensitive US aviation technology for Beijing. Convicted of the role.
Xu, deputy director of the local branch of the Chinese National Security Ministry, Beijing’s highest intelligence agency, was found guilty of all aspects, including a plot to commit economic espionage and steal trade secrets. US Department of Justice (DOJ).
Federal prosecutors have recruited employees from major US and foreign airlines since 2013, often pretending to be an exchange of ideas or a presentation at a university, and new hires on a trip to China. Said to pay.
In 2017, Xu recruited GE Aviation engineers in an attempt to steal the design of its own compound aircraft engine fan for the benefit of the Chinese government.
Xu was arrested in April 2018 after an engineer worked with the FBI to devise a plan to lure him into Belgium by promising to receive sensitive information related to engine fans. Xu was later handed over to the United States. He faces up to 60 years in prison and a fine of over $ 5 million. No judgment date has been set.
The Justice Department’s efforts to fight spies from China include convictions Electrician Yi-Chi Shih states, “We have conspired to use missile guidance applications to illegally export to Chinese semiconductor chips.”
Shih, 66, from Hollywood Hills, was sentenced to 63 months in prison by Judge John A. Kronstadt of the US District Court in July.
In 2018, he and Kiet Anh Mai, a former employee of a U.S. defense contractor who is a resident of California, falsely purchased from a U.S. company a microchip that could be used for military purposes in the country. I was arrested. Technology to China.
According to the Ministry of Justice in July 2019, My Plead guilty Due to his role in the plan, and in September of that year, a sentencing was scheduled.
Sea’s brother, Ishiang ShihHe, who was an associate professor of engineering at McGill University until 2018, is also suspected of supporting the project.
The U.S. has called for Ishiang Shih to be handed over since October 2018, but Canada’s judicial system has not yet determined his fate, La Presse said. march..
Using files from Canadian Press, Eva Fu, JM Phelps, Isabel van Brugen, Omid Ghoreishi
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Isaac Teo is a Toronto-based Epoch Times reporter.