Gong had worked at a Los Angeles-area research and development company where he transferred more than 3,600 files to personal storage devices.
They included technologies developed for the U.S. government to detect nuclear missile launches, track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, enable U.S. fighter planes to detect and evade heat-seeking missiles, and provide so-called next-generation sensors for use in space.
According to the DOJ, Gong had dual U.S. and Chinese citizenship. Gong previously told The Epoch Times he had only U.S. citizenship, which he obtained in 2011.
Beijing’s ‘Thousand Talents’ Plan
Between 2014 and 2022, Gong submitted multiple applications to the Chinese communist regime’s “Thousand Talents” program, according to law enforcement. The program was launched in 2008 to recruit talent from primarily STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields with lucrative grants or choice employment, and has come under scrutiny by intelligence agencies in the West.
Gong was employed at Texas Instruments from 2010 to May 2014. In 2014, he sent a business proposal based on the technology produced by his Dallas employer to a Chinese tech company working on dual-use products.
Gong sent another proposal in 2020 to develop “low light/night vision” image sensors and included the model number of a sensor developed by international defense company BAE Systems, where Gong worked from May 2015 to October 2019, the DOJ said.
According to the DOJ, Gong also travelled to China several times as part of the Thousand Talents program to seek funding for his proposals. In one email, Gong noted he worked for “an American military industry company” and was taking a “risk” by traveling to China to contribute to its “high-end military integrated circuits.”
Lear Zhou and Jill McLaughlin contributed to this report.
