U.S. charges shuttle tech theft for China

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- FBI agents arrested a former Boeing engineer in California Monday on charges he supplied China with information on the space shuttle and other programs.

Dongfan "Greg" Chung, 72, of Orange, Calif., is also suspected of giving China information on the C-17 military transport and the Delta IV rocket.

Chung was indicted last week on charges of economic espionage and acting as an unregistered foreign agent of the People's Republic of China, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Chung was employed by Rockwell International until it was acquired by Boeing in in 1996.

A native of China, Chung is a naturalized U.S. citizen who held a "secret" security clearance when he worked on the space shuttle program. He retired in 2002 but was rehired the next year as a contractor and was employed until 2006.

The Chung case is related to that of another U.S. engineer, Chi Mak, who with several family members was convicted last year of providing technical information to China. Mak is to be sentenced on March 24.

The Justice Department alleged Chung provided China aviation officials with manuals on the B-1 bomber and made multiple trips to China to lecture on the shuttle and other programs, where he met with Chinese officials.

In a separate case Monday, U.S. agents arrested a Defense Department official and two others on charges of spying for China.