(KRON) — The U.S. Attorneys’ Office said a San Jose man was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly stealing sensitive nuclear technology information for the benefit of China and “hostile foreign adversaries.”
Engineer Chenguang Gong, 57, of San Jose, is accused of stealing trade secrets developed by the U.S. government to detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
Gong was investigated by the U.S. Disruptive Technology Strike Force, an agency tasked with catching anyone who attempts to “steal our nation’s most powerful technology and use it against us,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.
Gong lives in San Jose, was born in China, and became an American citizen in 2011. He was slated to appear in a Northern District of California federal courtroom Wednesday.
According to a criminal complaint, Gong transferred more than 3,600 files from a research and development company where he worked to personal storage devices during his brief tenure with the company last year.
“The files Gong allegedly transferred include blueprints for sophisticated infrared sensors designed for use in space-based systems to detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, and blueprints for sensors designed to enable U.S. military aircraft to detect incoming heat-seeking missiles and take countermeasures, including by jamming the missiles’ infrared tracking ability,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote.
The company had worked closely with the U.S. government and invested tens of millions of dollars annually to develop the technology. Top secret information obtained by Gong was “dangerous to U.S. national security if obtained by international actors,” prosecutors wrote.
The company’s name was redacted from court documents.
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said, “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. 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.”
“The Disruptive Technology Strike Force has strengthened enforcement and disrupted numerous criminal schemes to smuggle highly-sensitive technology that foreign adversaries wield to advance their military and other malign agendas,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department.
Prosecutors said the company hired Gong in January 2023 to work at one of its laboratories as a design manager of infrared sensors. He allegedly used his new job position to covertly transfer thousands of files from his work laptop to three personal storage devices.
Gong also allegedly transferred trade secret files relating to the development of “next generation” sensors capable of detecting low observable targets while demonstrating increased survivability in space. This information was among the victim company’s most important trade secrets worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the complaint.
FBI agents discovered that between 2014 and 2022, while he was employed at several major technology companies in the United States, Gong submitted applications to “Talent Programs” administered by the People’s Republic of China government, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. To entice applicants, “the PRC government rewards Talent Recruits with significant financial and social incentives,” prosecutors wrote.
According to an affidavit, Gong also travelled to China several times to seek Talent Program funding. In a 2019 email, translated from Chinese, Gong remarked that he “took a risk” by traveling to China to participate in the Talent Programs because he worked for an American military industry company, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.