Public warned to beware of espionage

The Ministry of State Security reminded Chinese people, especially those in key institutes with access to confidential information, to be aware of foreign espionage activities and be better guards of State secrets, as it unveiled a case in which a military engineer provided technological secrets to a foreign spy and ended up in prison.

On Thursday, the ministry revealed in an article on its WeChat account that the engineer, identified only by his surname Zhang, was detained in December 2013 and later sentenced to 15 years in prison for espionage. The article reviewed how Zhang, a talented engineer, ended up being a pawn of a foreign espionage network and later a prisoner.

Born into an impoverished rural family, Zhang began studying automation at an engineering school in 1986. He was assigned to a military institute after graduation and achieved "notable accomplishments" in China's advancements in science, the article said.