Student detained for selling intelligence info

Source:Global Times Published: 2014-8-7 0:18:02

A graduate student in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, was detained on Tuesday for collecting and selling intelligence information to foreigners.

The student, surnamed Chang, has reportedly made more than 200,000 yuan ($32,000) through trading more than 60 pieces of intelligence information with foreigners on over 50 occasions from October 2012 to this June, the Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.

The report said Chang, a graduate student in an aerospace related major at a university in Harbin, was first reached by "foreign personnel" through the contact information Chang left on a job-ad website. Chang was doing a part-time job to reduce financial burdens, Xinhua said.

At the beginning Chang was asked to collect some "semi-public" information for the "foreign personnel," who offered several thousand yuan as payment every time, and this payment was very generous, the Xinhua report said.

The case has shown that the influence of overseas intelligence agencies and personnel has reached as far as college students, a procurator told Xinhua.

Some college students, who have weak security awareness and cannot resist the lure of money, help overseas organizations to steal college science research achievements and national security information, severely affecting national security, the procurator said.

A document requiring colleges to amend safety loopholes and raise security awareness, in order to prevent such cases from happening again, has been sent to colleges, the procurator said.

After several deals the "foreign personnel" asked Chang to collect more secret materials at his convenience at the college. Though he was aware it was a criminal activity, Chang could not resist the temptation of money, Xinhua said.

The identity or nationality of the "foreign personnel" was not revealed.

Chang also took sensitive military photos in Hainan Province under the cover of traveling and then sent the photos overseas, Xinhua said.

Police were authorized by the People's Procuratorate in the Nongken district of Heilongjiang to detain Chang on Tuesday.

Similar cases happened in May in Guangdong Province when a man surnamed Li was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment after providing security information to an overseas organization, Guangdong security officers revealed.

The organization had been inciting college and high school students to collect, analyze and transmit intelligence information, reports said.

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