SEATTLE, March 24 (UPI) -- A Chinese immigrant near Seattle was expected to plead guilty to trying to smuggle military technology to China, a source told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Lian Yang, 46, of Woodinville, Wash., was charged by federal prosecutors with conspiring to violate federal arms export rules.
Yang, a longtime software engineer who once worked for Microsoft Corp., was arrested Dec. 3 after a nine-month investigation.
Prosecutors and Yang's attorneys had no comment on the case.
Prosecutors allege Yang, who became a U.S. citizen in 1999, offered to buy five radiation-hardened computer chips used in satellites and intended to personally smuggle them to China.
On the day of his arrest, he was prepared to pay $20,000 for the components, prosecutors allege.
Yang also planned to pay $620,000 for 300 satellite components, prosecutors allege in charging Yang with violating federal arms-control laws.
"Boiled down to its essence, the defendant's offense amounted to a form of espionage on behalf of the People's Republic of China to acquire the United States' sensitive military technology," the newspaper quoted Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg as telling the court.
Greenberg contended the components had no non-military purpose.
Yang allegedly told an FBI informant the parts were meant for the China Space Technology Co.'s spacecraft program, the newspaper said. On another occasion, Yang allegedly said some of the parts would be used in "China's new generation of passenger jet," it said.
A Seattle FBI special agent said Yang later said he didn't know how the high-tech components would be used.
