Threat from Communist China

US Charges Chinese Man Accused of Hacking Into Universities to Steal COVID-19 Research

The defendant is allegedly ‘one of the first hackers linked to Chinese intelligence services to be captured by the FBI,’ the FBI’s Houston Field Office says.
US Charges Chinese Man Accused of Hacking Into Universities to Steal COVID-19 Research
The Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington on March 10, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
Frank Fang
Frank Fang
Reporter
|Updated:
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced charges on July 8 against a Chinese national taken into custody in Italy at the behest of Washington, and accused him of hacking into several U.S. universities to steal COVID-19 research at the direction of China’s main intelligence agency.
Xu Zewei, 33, was arrested in Milan, Italy, on July 3 by Italian law enforcement officials and FBI agents as he departed a plane from China. Xu and another Chinese national, Zhang Yu, 44, who remains at large, are charged in a nine-count indictment unsealed in the Southern District of Texas on Tuesday for their alleged involvement in computer intrusions between February 2020 and June 2021.
Frank Fang
Frank Fang
Reporter
Frank Fang is a Taiwan-based reporter. He covers U.S., China, and Taiwan news. He holds a master's degree in materials science from Tsinghua University in Taiwan.
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