Engineer gets 24 1/2 years in prison

Santa Ana, Calif. - A Chinese-born engineer convicted of conspiracy to export U.S. defense technology to China was sentenced Monday to 24 1/2 years in federal prison. Chi Mak, 67, was also convicted last year of acting as an unregistered foreign agent, attempting to violate export control laws and making false statements to the FBI. He worked on highly sensitive submarine propulsion systems in his job as an engineer for the Anaheim-based naval defense contractor Power Paragon.

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Chinese espionage

On Feb. 11, the United States announced that four individuals were arrested on charges of conducting espionage operations for the Chinese against American interests. One employee, who worked for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, was hours from meeting his Chinese intelligence service contact when he was arrested.

While there is little broad agreement about U.S. defense and trade policy toward China, there is widespread agreement among security experts that China is systematically seeking classified information about the United States. These arrests were not isolated incidents, but rather just public examples of a long string of events that have been building over the last decade.

There are three prudent steps the United States can take now to responsibly address China and Chinese espionage...

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