May 15, 2009: The U.S. is prosecuting a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, James Wilbur Fondren, Jr., for acting as a spy for China. Fondren is accused of conspiring to pass classified information to an agent of the Chinese government. Fondren retired in 1996, and in 1998 began working for a Taiwanese citizen, Tai Shen Kuo, who had business interests in Taiwan and China. In 2001, Fondren went to work in the Pentagon, and gained access to much classified material.
American intelligence agents found that Kuo had been paid at least $50,000 by the Chinese government, to collect information from his American contacts. Fondern was aware of this, and also communicated with Chinese officials. China told Kuo to convince Fondern that he was actually stealing American secrets for the Taiwanese. This is a common ploy the Chinese have used many times.
Between 2001-8, Fondern supplied Kuo with Pentagon documents, being paid $350-800 for each of them. Some of these documents contained classified information. Kuo was arrested by the FBI in 2008, for his work in obtaining information from another American contact, Gregg William Bergersen, who was also arrested, and later convicted and sentenced to 57 months in jail. An associate of Kuo, Yu Xin Kang, was also arrested and confessed to his activities.
