Chinese-born engineer arrested for theft involving missile sensor technology

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FBI agents in California arrested a suspected technology spy for China this week, charging him with stealing some 3,600 files from a defense contractor that includes sensitive information on advanced sensors used to detect missile launches.

Gong Chenguang, 57, of San Jose, was charged by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles with being part of China’s “talents” program, a systematic Beijing effort to obtain U.S. technology by recruiting American-based scientists and technical experts with access to advanced know-how.

An FBI affidavit used to seek an arrest warrant identifies Mr. Gong as a naturalized citizen employed by a Malibu defense contractor in January 2023.

The technology involved is worth “hundreds of millions of dollars” and, if provided to a foreign government, would “compromise U.S. national security,” the affidavit states. A spokeswoman identified the company as HRL Laboratories.

According to the affidavit, the company “develops sophisticated infrared sensor technology intended for use in various space-based and military missions, including in systems designed to detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles.”

Prosecutors said Mr. Gong transferred documents containing trade secrets in March and April. He also traveled to China several times as part of the talent programs.

Some of the files contained information on developing an integrated circuit that “combines high dynamic range and time-of-flight capabilities, enabling the tracking of incoming threats in low-visibility environments,” the complaint states.

Another integrated circuit combined high sensitivity, a wide field of view and command-and-control functions used in detecting missile launches and tracking hypersonic missiles, as well as hardening against radiation in space.

The Pentagon is working on hypersonic missiles, both offensive missiles and defenses against hypersonic missile attacks, which require advanced sensor technology. If China obtained the technology, it could help hypersonic missiles defeat U.S. sensors and defenses.

A third circuit is being developed to “detect low-observable targets” while survivable in space.

“These files describe the methods, designs, techniques, processes, specifications, testing and manufacture of these technologies and would be extremely damaging economically if obtained by [HRL’s] competitors and would be dangerous to U.S. national security if obtained by international actors,” the complaint says.

The company detected computer activity by Mr. Gong in April that led to the discovery of the transferred documents and resulted in his termination. The FBI complaint did not say whether the documents were provided to China.

FBI investigators determined that Mr. Gong made several applications to join China’s talent recruitment program.

China’s communist government has engaged in an effort known as the Thousand Talents program, supposedly to build up its domestic research infrastructure and attract home Chinese-born scholars and researchers working abroad. The Justice Department has targeted the program since 2018 and has prosecuted several people suspected of providing sensitive technology to China.

The Washington Times reported in November that China has invested more than $1.4 billion to set up a new talent program, an institute run by former scientists at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory.

From 2014 through 2022, Mr. Gong submitted several applications to join Chinese talent programs.

“During that period, [Mr. Gong] was employed by several major U.S. technology companies and one of the world’s largest defense contractors,” the complaint states.

China uses the talent programs to identify people outside China with skills, abilities and knowledge to help bolster the Chinese economy and military, the complaint said.

“In his submissions to the talent programs, Gong proposed projects that mirrored his work for several of these companies, and repeatedly touted that his proposals would be useful to China’s military and that China did not yet have the technologies he was proposing to develop himself or share with Chinese companies,” the complaint said.

Company suspicions

According to the court document, Mr. Gong was born in 1966 in Zhejiang province, China. He came to the United States in 1993 and became a U.S. citizen in 2011. He obtained a master’s degree in electrical engineering at Clemson University and worked toward a doctorate at Stanford University.

Pamela Reese, director of marketing and communications for HRL Laboratories, said in a statement that HRL terminated Mr. Gong, who worked in the company’s Visual Systems Laboratory, after becoming aware of suspicious activity. The company also notified authorities of his activities.

“HRL has continued to cooperate with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on its case against Gong and will provide ongoing support as needed,” she said. “As a top physical science and engineering research organization who regularly works with U.S. government customers, HRL has robust information security practices designed to detect and document suspicious activity.”

An attorney for Mr. Gong could not be reached for comment.

Martin Estrada, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said: “We will do everything to protect our nation’s security, including from foreign threats.”

“Mr. Gong, who had previously sought to provide the People’s Republic of China with information to aid its military, stole sensitive and confidential information related to detecting nuclear missile launches and tracking ballistic and hypersonic missiles,” Mr. Estrada said in a statement. “We know that foreign actors, including the PRC, are actively seeking to steal our technology, but we will remain vigilant against this threat by safeguarding the innovations of American businesses and researchers.”

In 2014, while working for a Dallas-based information technology company, Mr. Gong sent a business proposal to the 38th Research Institute at the China Electronics Technology Group Corp., a research institute involved in military and civilian work, the affidavit states.

Mr. Gong proposed developing an export-controlled technology for the Chinese company, which the Treasury Department sanctioned in 2021. The Biden administration also put sanctions on China Electronic Technology Group last year for links to a Chinese surveillance balloon.

The investigation into Mr. Gong was carried out as part of the Disruptive Technology Strike Force, an interagency group led by the Justice and Commerce departments to prevent the theft of U.S. technology.

The Justice Department terminated its “China Initiative” program specifically targeting Chinese technology theft that was launched during the Trump administration amid criticisms that the program was “applying a lower standard to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct related to [China] or that we in some way view people with racial, ethnic or familial ties to China differently,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen said at the time.

Mr. Olsen said the U.S. government would remain vigilant in response to Beijing’s challenges to national security.