Independent public-source research Read our evidence standard
ChinaSteals Search
Menu

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.

Browse case files Senate hearing: Stealth Stealing Explore the timeline Protect your institution
01

Timeline of documented cases

Decades of adjudicated theft, alleged appropriation, and lawful technology transfer.

Every notch is a full dossier with its own legal posture. Select any case to see who was involved, what was targeted, what is established, what is inferred or alleged, and what remains unknown.

29documented dossiers
5technology sectors
1973–2026public-record span

Every notch is a case

Move through the documented record.

Select a case or use Previous and Next. On larger screens, every marker is plotted to the start year published in its dossier.

Case 1 of 29
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 Staff Sgt. Jacob N. Bailey, 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.

Open full dossier
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.

Six-stage framework

Relationship

Access

Acquisition

Movement

Downstream use

Consequence

02

Case files

The pattern becomes visible in the particulars.

Each file separates what a court established, what officials alleged, what the evidence supports as an inference, what remains uncertain, and whether public evidence connects a particular actor to the PRC state.

Browse all 29 case files Choose a focused reading path → How cases earn a label
03

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

Material factual claims carry source links.

Court records and signed admissions lead. Automated checks verify that citations resolve; editorial review determines whether each source actually supports the wording and qualifier.

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.

04

Scope of the record

A public record spread across decades and industries.

29 dossiers span 5 sectors and multiple legal postures. 26 include adjudicated outcomes; the remaining files preserve attribution, dispute, or lawful-transfer labels so unlike records are never presented as equivalent.

29reviewed case files
94visible source records
5technology sectors represented
05

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