The Chinese-born Physics Department chairman of Temple University in Pennsylvania has been accused of trying to steal technology from the United States in order to help China become a world leader in manipulating magnetic fields.
Federal prosecutors say they charged Xioaxing Xi, 47, a naturalized U.S. citizen, who repeatedly sold and shared a valuable technological device — purchased with Defense Department grant money — to third-party entities in China.
Mr. Xioaxing is considered to be a world-renowned expert in the field of magnesium diboride thin film and superconducting technology, which is used to dramatically improve the performance and efficiency of certain machinery. A six-page indictment filed on May 14 and unsealed on May 21 shows that his scheme to profit off of the device took place over the span of several years.
The Pennsylvania-based professor was able to acquire access to the device and other research equipment from an unnamed U.S. company using funds awarded to him through the Defense Department’s Defense University Research Instrumentation Program, according to court documents.
The U.S. company initially resisted Mr. Xioaxing’s efforts to obtain the device, but eventually agreed in early 2006 to allow the professor to have access to it for a year. Four years later, in 2010, Mr. Xioaxing sent some of that valuable technology to China, court documents said.
“Defendant Xiaoxing Xi repeatedly reproduced, sold, transferred, distributed and otherwise shared the Device and the technology of the Device with and exploited it for the benefit of third parties in China, including government entities and attempted to do so, both personally and through the assistance of his post-doctoral students from China, in an effort to help Chinese entities become world leaders in the field of superconductivity,” court documents said.
A few months after shipping technology to China, Mr. Xiaoxing offered to build a world-class scientific laboratory in the country, according to an email exchange outlined in the indictment.
The high-profile arrest of the National Science Foundation award-winning professor comes just days after federal prosecutors accused six Chinese citizens of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets in a wide-scale conspiracy to deliver sensitive information about U.S. technologies to China’s Tianjin University.
If convicted, Mr. Xiaoxing faces up to 80 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million, according to a May 21 FBI statement.
• Maggie Ybarra can be reached at mybarra@washingtontimes.com.
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