20 years for Chinese national in US aviation spying case

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A federal judge has handed down a 20-year prison sentence to 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. Judge Timothy Black in Cincinnati on Wednesday sentenced Xu to 20 years, rejecting arguments by Xu’s attorneys that a fair sentence would be the nearly five years he’s served since his arrest.