Documented technology transfer · Case by case

Access is the beginning of the story.

Partnerships, research ties, customers, hires, and invitations can create legitimate value. They can also create the access used to take technology, know-how, and competitive advantage. See what happened—and what leaders can do before it happens again.

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Timeline of documented cases

Decades of theft, copying, and technology transfer.

Every notch is a full dossier. Let the record advance, or select any case to see who was involved, what was targeted, what happened, and what the evidence establishes.

27documented dossiers

5technology sectors

1973–2026public-record span

Every notch is a case

Move through the documented record.

Select a notch or use Previous and Next. Every marker is plotted to the start year published in its dossier.

Case 1 of 27

A large United States military transport aircraft in flight — Chung's case involved U.S. aerospace engineering records, including Space Shuttle and launch-vehicle technology. This public-domain aircraft image is contextual, not one of the programs at issue. Source U.S. Air Force Public domain

CS-017 · 1973–2010 Adjudicated

Aerospace & defense

A Boeing engineer answered decades of PRC tasking with Space Shuttle and rocket secrets

Dongfan “Greg” Chung built a long aerospace career at Rockwell and Boeing while collecting technical material for contacts in China. Investigators ultimately recovered more than 250,000 pages from his home.

Targeted: Rockwell International · The Boeing Company
Technology or know-how: Space Shuttle engineering · Delta IV launch-vehicle technology · Aircraft and antenna records

After a bench trial, Chung was convicted of economic espionage, acting as an unregistered PRC agent, and related offenses. He received a 188-month federal prison sentence.

Read the scale carefully

This is a curated library of public records, not a prevalence estimate. Each notch represents one dossier and appears once by the year its documented conduct began. Evidence labels distinguish adjudicated findings, official attribution, disputed claims, and lawful transfer.

Recurring pattern

Relationship

Access

Acquisition

Movement

Use

Harm

Case files

The pattern becomes visible in the particulars.

Each file separates what a court established, what officials alleged, what remains uncertain, and whether public evidence connects the conduct to the PRC state.

01 / CS-001 2011–2018

Energy & advanced manufacturing

Sinovel turned a supplier relationship into stolen wind-turbine software

A customer owing more than $800 million recruited the head of its supplier’s automation engineering department, obtained proprietary source code, and used compiled versions in turbines.

02 / CS-002 2013–2024

Aerospace & defense

An intelligence officer used a university invitation to target GE Aviation technology

A Chinese Ministry of State Security officer recruited aviation employees through presentations and paid travel, then sought proprietary design-process information and access to a GE engineer’s company computer.

03 / CS-003 1997–2026

Energy & advanced manufacturing

Former DuPont insiders sold chloride-process trade secrets into a Chinese state-owned project

A consulting company recruited retired DuPont engineers, assembled protected titanium-dioxide plant knowledge, and contracted to transfer it to Pangang projects in China.

Browse all 27 case files How cases earn a label

Read the file

Forceful claims require visible proof.

The domain makes a blunt assertion. The research underneath it must be more disciplined: named records, precise legal posture, clear uncertainty, and a fair account of responses.

01 / Trace every claim

Every material claim traces to a source.

Court records and signed admissions lead. Official allegations, company statements, and reputable reporting are labeled for what they are.

02 / Separate the questions

Conduct is not state nexus.

A proven theft does not by itself prove government direction. Every file scores evidentiary status and PRC-state connection independently.

03 / Turn evidence into action

Leaders get actions, not atmosphere.

Each case translates hindsight into controls for access, travel, research disclosure, partnerships, departures, and incident response.

Scope of the record

A public record spread across decades and industries.

27 dossiers span 5 sectors and multiple legal postures. 24 include adjudicated outcomes; the remaining files preserve attribution, dispute, or lawful-transfer labels so unlike records are never presented as equivalent.

27fully documented case files

76visible source records

5technology sectors represented

Act on the pattern

Trust can start a relationship. Controls must govern access.

Good safeguards preserve legitimate collaboration while making sensitive access deliberate, observable, and reversible. They focus on behavior, assets, and risk—not identity.

For company leaders

Protect the crown jewels across their full lifecycle.

Join commercial, personnel, travel, cyber, export, and supplier signals before a fragmented view becomes a blind spot.

Company controls →

For university leaders

Keep collaboration open—and make obligations explicit.

Reconcile disclosures, appointments, funding, samples, data, and commercialization without demographic screening.

University controls →

When an incident emerges

Preserve facts before drawing conclusions.

Stabilize access, preserve logs and devices, involve counsel, and protect fair process while the evidence develops.

Incident response →

The proposition

Trust is not a control.

Verify the relationship. Limit the access. Watch the transfer path. Be ready to respond.

See how it happens