His name is Yanjun Xu, and according to U.S. officials, he is the first Chinese intelligence officer to ever be extradited to the United States.
He was arrested in Belgium earlier this year, after allegedly trying to get a GE Aviation employee to hand over proprietary R&D information.
And this is how China operates, as we've heard at SecureWorld cybersecurity conferences over the last year.
Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and CNN analyst Cedric Leighton talks about it as he explains the difference between Russian and Chinese nation-state hackers:
And former Director of Operations at U.S. Cyber Command, Major General Brett Williams (Ret.), explains nation-state hacking priorities in the top three cyber threats facing the United States:
In this case, it looks like it was a good old-fashioned person-to-person intellectual property theft effort instead of a cyber attack. So the Chinese government isn't too picky about how it gets the West's intellectual property, as long as it does.
NPR does a good job of summarizing what Xu is accused of:
Starting in 2013, court papers say, Xu targeted experts and engineers at American and foreign aviation and aerospace companies, including General Electric's Cincinnati-based jet engine subsidiary, GE Aviation.
Posing as a technology association official, Xu invited a GE Aviation employee to travel to China to give a presentation—a trip paid for by Xu.
Xu remained in contact with the employee, and in February requested that the employee send specific proprietary information as well as a list of technical topics regarding composite materials in engine fan blades developed by GE Aviation....
