J Michael Slocum’s Post

 Chenguang Gong, 57, of San Jose, California, was arrested yesterday.... Gong is a native of China and became a United States citizen in 2011. Gong is charged with theft of trade secrets. According to court documents, Gong transferred more than 3,600 files from the 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.... Some of these files were later found on storage devices seized from Gong’s temporary residence in Thousand Oaks.... ...the victim company hired Gong in January 2023 to work at one its laboratories as an application-specific integrated circuit design manager responsible for the design, development and verification of its infrared sensors. ... Gong transferred thousands of files from his work laptop to three personal storage devices, including hundreds of files after he had accepted a job... at one of the victim company’s main competitors. ... information was among the victim company’s most important trade secrets worth hundreds of millions of dollars,..., and many of the files were marked “[VICTIM COMPANY] PROPRIETARY,” “FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY,” “PROPRIETARY INFORMATION,” and “EXPORT CONTROLLED.” ...the FBI discovered that, between approximately 2014 and 2022 while employed at several major technology companies in the United States, “Gong submitted numerous applications to ‘Talent Programs’ administered by the [PRC].” ... “the PRC has established talent programs through which it identifies individuals located outside the PRC who have expert skills, abilities, and knowledge that would aid in ... its military capabilities.” To entice applicants, “the PRC government rewards Talent Recruits with significant financial and social incentives,” ... ...FBI ... recovered several digital devices containing hundreds of documents marked as confidential or proprietary belonging to the U.S. information technology company, ... In another Talent Program application..., Gong proposed to develop “low light/night vision” image sensors for use in military night vision goggles and civilian applications. ... ...Gong also travelled to China several times to seek Talent Program funding to develop sophisticated analog-to-digital converters.... ... the high-performance analog-to-digital converters he proposed to develop in China had military applications, ... In a 2019 email, ... 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[]” ... he could “do something” to contribute to China’s “high-end military integrated circuits.”