https://chinasteals.com/
ChinaSteals research updates
Sourced case files on adjudicated theft, alleged or inferred appropriation, and lawful technology transfer involving China.
2026-09-09T00:00:00Z
ChinaSteals
© 2026 ChinaSteals
https://chinasteals.com/cases/linwei-ding-google-ai/
A Google engineer copied AI-supercomputer secrets while building China-based ventures
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-09-09T00:00:00Z
An engineer uploaded more than 2,000 pages of Google AI-infrastructure material to personal cloud storage while pursuing senior roles, investors, and a startup in China.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/sinovel-amsc/
Sinovel turned a supplier relationship into stolen wind-turbine software
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
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.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/yanjun-xu-ge-aviation/
An intelligence officer used a university invitation to target GE Aviation technology
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
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.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/liew-maegerle-dupont-tio2/
Former DuPont insiders sold chloride-process trade secrets into a Chinese state-owned project
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
A consulting company recruited retired DuPont engineers, assembled protected titanium-dioxide plant knowledge, and contracted to transfer it to Pangang projects in China.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/xiaorong-you-can-coatings/
A trusted coatings chemist copied seven companies' BPA-free formulas for a China venture
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
Limited access at Coca-Cola and Eastman exposed a chemist to suppliers' protected formulas; she copied files to personal storage while pursuing a government-supported coatings business in China.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/pflugbeil-shao-battery-assembly/
Battery-equipment veterans repackaged former-employer drawings for a competing China business
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
Two former employees of a Canadian automation manufacturer built a China-based equipment company and offered a prospective buyer a proposal containing their former employer's proprietary drawings.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/hao-zhang-rf-filters/
A semiconductor engineer used U.S. filter secrets to build a university-backed competitor in China
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
A bench trial found that Hao Zhang and collaborators moved radio-frequency filter know-how from Avago and Skyworks into a Tianjin University-linked manufacturing venture.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/hytera-motorola-dmr/
Hytera recruited Motorola engineers and used stolen source code to enter the digital-radio market
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
Hytera admitted that it hired Motorola personnel, directed the removal of proprietary digital-mobile-radio material, and used the information to develop competing products at a fraction of Motorola's development cost.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/huawei-tmobile-tappy/
Supplier access to T-Mobile's test lab became a pathway to Huawei's competing robot program
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
T-Mobile admitted Huawei engineers to a protected test lab under nondisclosure agreements. A civil jury later found trade-secret misappropriation, while a related federal criminal prosecution remains unresolved.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/zhou-chen-nationwide-childrens/
Two hospital researchers commercialized stolen exosome trade secrets in China
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
A married research team used long-term laboratory access to take exosome-isolation methods, establish a company in China, seek government support, and sell products and services built from the hospital’s work.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/yu-xue-tao-li-gsk/
A GSK scientist sent drug-development secrets to a China-based startup she co-founded
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
Yu Xue copied roughly 200 GSK documents concerning products, research, and manufacturing and sent them to collaborators at Renopharma, a China-based company she helped create.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/mo-hailong-corn-seeds/
A seed-company executive dug proprietary corn from U.S. fields for shipment to China
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
A Pioneer field manager found a stranger on his knees in an Iowa research plot, digging up corn. The license plate he recorded helped expose Mo Hailong's five-year effort to carry proprietary parent seed from Midwestern fields to a Chinese seed conglomerate.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/haitao-xiang-nutrient-optimizer/
A departing Monsanto scientist carried a proprietary farm algorithm toward a PRC research role
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
The day after leaving Monsanto and The Climate Corporation, Haitao Xiang arrived at an airport with copies of a proprietary predictive farming algorithm and a one-way ticket to China.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/su-bin-defense-hacking/
An aviation businessman guided PLA hackers toward U.S. military aircraft data
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
Su Bin used his aerospace knowledge to identify targets, select files, translate stolen material, and help turn intrusions into reports for a People's Liberation Army department.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/china-high-speed-rail-transfer/
China exchanged rail-market access for production technology as a state-owned competitor emerged
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
Foreign train makers accepted joint ventures and broad technology transfer to enter China's vast rail buildout. The contracts demonstrably expanded local production; a later U.S. commission assessed that sector-wide transfer helped cultivate CRRC as a state-owned competitor.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/kexue-huang-dow-cargill/
A research leader moved Dow pesticide secrets and Cargill food technology into PRC-linked research
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
Kexue Huang held trusted biotechnology roles at two major agricultural companies. He admitted taking protected research from both employers, sending Dow material to collaborators in China and Germany and giving a Cargill secret to a Chinese university student.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/dongfan-chung-boeing/
A Boeing engineer answered decades of PRC tasking with Space Shuttle and rocket secrets
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
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.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/xiaoqing-zheng-ge-turbines/
A GE engineer hid turbine files inside a digital sunset and sent them to his private account
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
Xiaoqing Zheng used steganography to conceal GE turbine files inside the binary code of an ordinary-looking sunset image, then emailed the image to himself. A jury convicted him of conspiring to commit economic espionage.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/hongjin-tan-phillips-66-batteries/
A departing Phillips 66 scientist copied a flow-battery research library before joining a China-based company
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
The day before resigning from Phillips 66, Hongjin Tan copied hundreds of research files to a thumb drive. Investigators found deleted copies and a second drive containing battery-development material.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/jiaqiang-xu-ibm-source-code/
A software developer stripped identifiers from IBM code and offered the product to prospective buyers
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
Jiaqiang Xu left a China-based software role with a complete copy of proprietary clustered-file-system source code. He modified it to conceal its origin, then demonstrated and offered the derivative software to undercover buyers.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/yu-long-united-technologies-engines/
A United Technologies engineer carried F-22 and F-35 engine documents to China for a state-run institute
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
While seeking work at a state-run Chinese institute, Yu Long used sensitive United Technologies material to support his application, carried a drive of documents to China, and retained controlled military-engine records.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/umc-micron-jinhua-dram/
UMC admitted taking Micron DRAM secrets—but the PRC company accused of benefiting was acquitted
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
A Taiwan semiconductor company pleaded guilty to stealing a Micron trade secret during work connected to Fujian Jinhua. Four years later, the federal judge found Jinhua not guilty on every criminal count.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/zaosong-zheng-biological-vials/
Vials hidden in luggage—and a conviction limited to false statements
2026-08-24T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
Airport officers found biological research vials hidden in a sock before a China-bound flight, but Zaosong Zheng’s only conviction was for lying to federal officers about carrying research material.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/john-reece-roth-air-force-drone-research/
A U.S. university professor exported Air Force drone research after repeated warnings
2026-08-24T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
A University of Tennessee professor and defense-project consultant was convicted after allowing unlicensed foreign-national access and carrying controlled military research to China, despite contract language and direct compliance warnings.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/apt40-hainan-mss-campaign/
A Hainan intelligence bureau allegedly used a front company to run a global technology-hunting campaign
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
A certified 2021 federal indictment, U.S. cyber advisories, and allied attribution statements linked a multiyear intrusion campaign to officers of the Hainan State Security Department and a contractor front company. The defendants remain accused, not convicted.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/shan-shi-trelleborg-syntactic-foam/
A China-funded Houston venture recruited insiders to reproduce Trelleborg's deep-sea syntactic foam
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
Shan Shi's Houston company hired former and current Trelleborg personnel, collected recipes and process information, and supplied a China-based partner with the know-how needed to make a specialized buoyancy material.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/shanshan-du-yu-qin-gm-hybrid/
A GM engineer copied 16,000 hybrid-vehicle files before building a venture aimed at a Chinese automaker
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
Days after accepting a severance offer, General Motors engineer Shanshan Du copied thousands of files, including hybrid-motor source code and schematics. She and her husband then pursued a business relationship with Chery Automobile.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/xiaolang-zhang-apple-autonomous-vehicle/
Apple autonomous-vehicle trade-secret theft ended in a one-count guilty plea
2026-08-24T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
An Apple engineer admitted one federal trade-secret-theft count after an internal review found unusual downloads before his resignation, but the sealed plea leaves important transfer and beneficiary questions unanswered.
https://chinasteals.com/cases/huang-qi-pittsburgh-corning-foamglas/
Two businesspeople offered $100,000 for Pittsburgh Corning's FOAMGLAS formula in an FBI sting
2026-08-23T00:00:00Z
2026-08-25T00:00:00Z
After tours, photographs, and a recruitment advertisement failed to secure Pittsburgh Corning's cellular-glass know-how, Ji Li Huang and Xiao Guang Qi agreed to buy the formula and process from a person they thought was a corrupt insider.