WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. federal court in Cincinnati sentenced a Chinese national to 20 years in prison on Wednesday after he was convicted last year of plotting to steal trade secrets from several U.S. aviation and aerospace companies, the Justice Department said.
Xu Yanjun, the first Chinese spy extradited to the United States for trial, was convicted in November 2021 by a federal jury on counts of conspiring and attempting to commit economic espionage and trade secret theft. Chinese authorities on Thursday called the allegations against Xu "untrue."
Prosecutors had asked for a 25-year sentence to act as a deterrent against similar actions, but Xu's lawyers said in earlier court filings that such a sentence would exceed those given to other people convicted of such crimes.
"Today's sentence demonstrates the seriousness of those crimes and the Justice Department's determination to investigate and prosecute efforts by the Chinese government, or any foreign power, to threaten our economic and national security," U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Xu, 42, accused of being a career intelligence officer for China's Ministry of State Security, was detained in Belgium in 2018 after a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
He was alleged to have used aliases and front companies between 2013 and 2018 to target multiple U.S. aviation and aerospace companies, including GE Aviation, a unit of General Electric (NYSE:GE) Co.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the accusations against Xu "are simply untrue."
"We ask the U.S. side to handle the case without bias and in accordance with the law and protect the lawful rights and interests of Chinese citizens," Mao told a regular news briefing in Beijing on Thursday.
U.S. officials say the Chinese government poses the biggest long-term threat to U.S. economic and national security, and is carrying out unprecedented efforts to steal critical technology from U.S. businesses and researchers.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has said his agency opens a new counterintelligence case related to China about twice a day.