Yu Xin Kang, a Chinese woman and an alien resident living in New Orleans in the United States was convicted on Wednesday with providing top-secret U.S. military secrets to the Communist regime in China.
The classified information, about U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, was obtained from a Defense Department weapons analyst and passed on to a Chinese agent.
Kang, who pleaded guilty, faces up to 10 years in prison. She will receive her sentence in early August.
Kang’s plea, the third and final one in this case, brings to close a saga that started playing out in February this year when federal prosecutors arrested and brought charges against weapons system analyst for the Department of Defense and three Chinese nationals.
The weapons analyst, Gregg Bergersen, 51, was arrested in February and pleaded guilty on March 31st.
U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg said of the sentence: “Every day, dedicated men and women throughout government serve our nation with honor and dignity. Mr. Bergersen chose a different path—a path of dishonor—that is deeply disappointing.”
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein, who announced the arrests and charges, in early February cited congressional testimony about Chinese espionage programs, stating “China’s foreign intelligence service is ‘among the most aggressive in collecting against sensitive and protected U.S. systems, facilities, and development projects, and their efforts are approaching Cold War levels.’”
“It’s a threat to our national security and to our economic position in the world, a threat that is posed by the relentless efforts of foreign intelligence services to penetrate our security systems and steal our most sensitive military technology and information,” Wainstein said.
Bergersen is supposed to have sold military information about the Taiwan arms shipments, classified as “top secret”, to Tai Shen Kuo, 58, a naturalized citizen also from New Orleans. Kuo is believed to have passed on the information to Kang, who passed it on the Communist regime in China.
Bergersen admitted during his plea that he had provided the information to Kuo, but had been duped into believing that Kuo was working for a Taiwanese business. He also declared that he had made it clear to Kuo that the information was classified and not to be released.
Kuo is believed to have treated Bergersen to lavish gifts, dinners and money for gambling at Las Vegas.
The Chinese Communist regime’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson had dismissed U.S. allegations of spying in early February, right after the federal case was first announced and a Boeing employee of Chinese origin, Dongfan “Greg” Chung, went on trial for providing military information from Rockwell and Boeing to the Chinese regime.
