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China says engineer jailed for 15 years was lured into sending aerospace secrets overseas

An aerospace engineer has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for espionage, Chinese state media said while warning that the aerospace industry is a…

By Samantha Johnson / May 26, 2026

An aerospace engineer has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for espionage, Chinese state media said while warning that the aerospace industry is a cornerstone of national technological strength and defence security.

The engineer surnamed Zhu graduated from a top university with a PhD in 2018, state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday. Since then, he has worked as an engineer in multiple aerospace research institutes and handled classified documents in the aerospace and defence industries.

During that time, spies from an unnamed country reached out to him, the report said. CCTV said that despite knowing they were spies, Zhu used their equipment to photograph many documents and other materials and transmitted them to the unnamed agency, illegally earning 596,400 yuan (US$88,000), it said. In addition to being sentenced to 15 years in prison, all his belongings were confiscated.

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“Zhu had placed personal gain over national interest, succumbing to the lure of money and fell step-by-step into the trap laid by the spy organisation, ultimately becoming a tool for overseas forces to steal state secrets,” CCTV said, stating that in recent years foreign intelligence agencies had increasingly targeted personnel in classified positions using financial enticements.

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Most recently, China launched its Shenzhou-23 mission on Sunday, sending three astronauts to its Tiangong space station, including one who will stay for a year to advance long-duration human space flight. State media declared that the mission “represents fresh progress for China’s space industry”, Xinhua said on Monday.

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