Yanjun Xu: an MSS officer convicted in the United States
Verified: Documented in primary records or confirmed by reputable inquiry/reporting.
The US Justice Department charged Yanjun Xu, a deputy division director in the Jiangsu State Security Department’s Sixth Bureau, with economic espionage targeting GE Aviation. He was arrested in Belgium and extradited. A jury in Cincinnati convicted him in November 2021 and he was sentenced to 20 years on 16 November 2022.
Documented
NPR reports he was the first Chinese intelligence officer extradited to the US. The DOJ release states the charges and his MSS position.
Claimed, disputed or not established
Chinese officials’ response is not in the sources opened. The conviction concerns Xu’s own conduct, not the wider MSS.
Sources (opened in a new tab)
- US DOJ: Chinese intelligence officer charged with economic espionage (10 Oct 2018) ↗https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/chinese-intelligence-officer-charged-economic-espionage-involving-theft-trade-secrets-leading
- NPR: Chinese intelligence officer sentenced to 20 years (16 Nov 2022) ↗https://www.npr.org/2022/11/16/1137220742/yanjun-xu-chinese-espionage-prison-sentence
Connected
- Section: China
- Agencies: MSS
- Case board · Timeline (2022) · Document vault