One of China's spies has been caught red-handed at the airport with stolen bio-inspired computer codes that have military applications. China has been actively sending spies who are non-military to U.S. universities to purloin technology.
If the codes were to have reached the Chinese, they would have applied it to underwater robotics and aircraft engines. Chinese engineers will benefit from such code because they will not take years to develop it. Chinese would rather steal information than develop the technology themselves, reported Washington Examiner.
The spy is identified as Hu Haizhou, is a researcher from the University of Virginia, whose field is mechanical and aerospace engineering. He has connections to a Chinese military-linked university. His flight to Qingdao, China from the Chicago's O'Hare International Airport was canceled last Tuesday as U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested him on U.S. soil, according to an FBI special agent.
Agent Matthew Rader, CBP investigators, grilled the Chinese spy and checked his gadgets that contained UVA-research-related files in the laptop in his possession. Also found was bio-inspired research simulation software code files that were not his but from Professor 1. This code is for the study of birds and fish as they move in nature, the final use would be in Chinese military equipment if it got out, cited Behind the Black.
Hu was not granted any access to the files and he admitted it in interrogation.He said that the author of the code never knew he stole it for the Chinese government, or him purloining it either. The professor is responsible for multiuniversity Flow Simulations Group, which has been working on the code for 17-years now.
Several government entities have funded the code research for the military, and one reason why China wants it. FBI indicated that the researcher will be charged for stealing the code and trade secrets. The paper confirmed that Hu was arrested by authorities.
Furthermore, the professor verified that Hu was his assistant from March to August 2019. He added that Hu was not expected to leave early and abruptly. The professor's assistant researcher added that he works at the Chinese Key Laboratory for Fluid Dynamics at China's Beihang University that gets communist funding. He remembered a lecture on the professor's specialty in 2017. He later asked if he can be part of his studies, noted Rader. The Chinese progress in nature mimics is not as an advance in American universities noted Vietnam Times.
One of the instructions given by his handler is to load reports onto an online website to the Chinese Scholarship about UVA research each 6-month interval. Hu attempted to steal his research and escape to China.
Much interest lies in the code connected to bio-inspired learning, research, and modeling on the Chinese stool pigeon's laptop. According to the lead of the UVA program, codes were needed in simulations that were part of the National Science Foundation funds.
All code development was his and Hu stole the entire code developed last 17-years. This is vital to the U.S. in developing a host of tech, which something that China would want at the expense of America.
The government has warned of such threats about China stealing data. Chinese scholars may be wolves in sheep's clothing. Hu was never given access, but still, he got the code.
A mandate of the Justice Department like the China Initiative is to curb its illicit stealing of bio-inspired computer codes that America will weaponize against China.
