Chinese national faces sentencing in US aviation spying case

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A federal judge is preparing to sentence a Chinese national convicted of trying to steal trade secrets from U.S. aviation and aerospace companies. Prosecutors allege that beginning in 2013, Yanjun Xu recruited experts who worked at aviation companies, including GE Aviation. They say Xu worked for China’s intelligence and security agency and that he and others would pay stipends for the experts to travel to China under the guise of delivering a university presentation. The government is asking for a 25-year prison term at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing in Cincinnati. Xu’s attorneys say a fair sentence would be the nearly five years he’s served since his arrest.