Chinese police have detained a US automotive engineer since November last year on accusations he misused trade secrets — the latest case of vague secrecy laws being used against an American in China.
Hu Zhicheng (胡志成), a prize-winning designer of industrial catalysts to control auto emissions, has had letters from his family censored and has been denied reading materials during his detention in Tianjin, the US embassy in Beijing said. Last week police rejected an Old Testament he asked US consular officers to bring him.
The stern treatment is being meted out in a business dispute over an automobile technology. Hu told US officials that investigators have threatened him with multimillion-dollar fines unless he gives the rights to his US-registered patent to a former business partner in Tianjin.
Hu’s wife, Li Hong, a China-born naturalized American like her husband, said Tianjin authorities’ real target is a China-based company she managed and whose cutting-edge products competed with those of the former business partner, the Hysci (Tianjin) Specialty Materials Co.
Hysci, she said, complained that her startup was developing products unusually fast, prompting the trade secrets investigation.
“You don’t sue someone just because you think their R&D is too fast,” said Li, who lives in the Los Angeles area with their two teenage children. “This case is being conducted illegally.”
The US embassy said prosecutors have twice sent the case back to police for further investigation — often a sign the evidence is insufficient for an indictment.
Hysci declined to comment, as did the Chinese company that employed Hu at the time of his detention. Prosecutors referred inquiries to the Tianjin police. The police information office said the criminal investigation is continuing but refused to elaborate other than to say “it is a complicated case.”
A holder of nine patents in the US, Hu is just the kind of emigre Beijing has been eager to lure back to bolster an economy growing rapidly but short of talented managers and innovators. He has done research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as for multinationals in the US and Japan.
Yet, Hu’s predicament shows how powerful vested interests marshal law enforcement agencies to pressure foreign business executives, especially those like Hu, who were once Chinese citizens but now hold foreign passports.
Hu’s detention comes amid other similar prosecutions of China-born foreign nationals. In recent months, Australian national Stern Hu (胡士泰) — an executive with the global mining giant Rio Tinto — was detained on state secrets charges that were later reduced to infringing trade secrets.
Another China-born, naturalized American, geologist Xue Feng (薛峰), disappeared into custody two years ago and has been put on trial for passing on state secrets — for arranging the purchase of a detailed commercial database on the Chinese oil and gas industry.
All three cases involve industries Beijing deems vital to China’s economic security.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
Suspected Chinese spies posing as Taiwanese tourists have been arrested for allegedly taking photographs of Philippine Coast Guard ships, local media reported. The suspected spies stayed at a resort in Palawan, where from a secluded location they used their phones to record coast guard ships entering and leaving a base, Philippine TV network GMA said on Wednesday. Palawan is near the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) and other disputed areas of the South China Sea, where tensions have been on the rise between China and the Philippines. The suspects allegedly also used drones without permission and installed cameras on coconut trees in the
RSS