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Chinese Scientist Tries to Flee US With Space Secrets, Gets Arrested
By Sebastian Clouth
The Chinese scientist, Bo Jiang, was a former NASA contractor who was fired by Langley Research Center last week, after the agency found “a potential security breach.”
Jiang boarded a plane to Beijing in Washington, D.C. last weekend but was arrested by federal agents at the airport. He reportedly had a one way ticket.
The FBI recently began investigating Jiang, seeing whether he has violated the Arms Export Control Act. Jiang had more items with him than he disclosed, such as a second labtop, a SIM card, and a hard drive, according to the arrest affidavit.
Jiang’s work at NASA enabled him to get information that “would be of the greatest interest to foreign spies, including China,” said Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA).
Wolf claims whistleblowers at NASA relayed information to him which spurred the FBI’s investigation.
“We know that Mr. Jiang has in the past taken sensitive information back to China that he should not have been allowed to remove at Langley,” said Wolf.
Jiang’s not the only one in a position to find out U.S. secrets. There are nearly 200 Chinese nationals working in NASA who have positions that give them access to secrets, according to NASA Inspector-General Paul Martin.
In a similar incident that was also reported on March 19, a U.S. defense contractor in Hawaii was arrested on charges he passed national defense secrets—including classified information about nuclear weapons—to a Chinese woman he had a relationship with.
The information included planned deployment of United States nuclear systems as well as parts of how the U.S. detects other countries’ low-and medium-range ballistic missiles.
