China | Former engineer gets death penalty for spying

BEIJING: A former Chinese engineer has been sentenced to death for leaking state secrets to a foreign power, Beijing's spy agency said Wednesday.

The man, surnamed Liu, "secretly copied, duplicated, and sold a large volume of state secrets to a foreign espionage and intelligence agency", China's Ministry of State Security said in a post to its official WeChat account.

Liu had worked as an assistant engineer at a research institute and had resigned after believing he had been treated unfairly, the ministry said.

Before leaving, however, he "secretly copied and retained a large quantity of classified materials he had handled, intending to use them later for retaliation or blackmail against his superiors", it added.

The ministry did not state the research institute which employed Liu, nor did it give his full name.

Liu accumulated heavy debt after failed investments and "turned his attention to the classified materials in his possession, giving rise to treasonous thoughts of selling intelligence", it said.

The foreign intelligence agency – which was not named – cut off contact after tricking Liu into handing over the classified information at "a very low price", according to the ministry.

"However, the irredeemable Liu did not become aware of the consequences of his actions," it said, adding that he soon went abroad again to sell classified information.

"Over a period of six months, he covertly travelled through multiple countries, severely compromising China's national secrets."

Liu was sentenced to death following an investigation, the ministry added.

No details were given about when he would be executed.

Beijing has stepped up warnings that foreign powers are seeking to curb China's rise under President Xi Jinping, the country's most powerful and authoritarian leader in decades.

The security services frequently warn that spies are working to lure loyal Chinese people to betray their country – often in lurid and unusual ways.

Beijing's highly secretive Ministry of State Security has also taken to sharing news of its findings on social media.

A former high-level Chinese government employee was sentenced to death for handing foreign spy agencies state secrets in exchange for cash, the spy agency announced in November.

In September, the ministry also warned students with access to sensitive information against falling for "handsome men" or "beautiful women" that might entice them to spy.

And in June, it accused Britain's MI6 intelligence agency of recruiting a couple who worked for the central government to spy for the UK.

China classifies death penalty statistics as a state secret, though rights groups including Amnesty International believe thousands of people are executed in the country every year.

Source: Agence France-Presse, Staff, March 19, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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