July 19, 2009: A U.S. court recently convicted a Chinese born American citizen, of spying for China for over 30 years. Born in China in 1936, Dongfan Chung arrived in Taiwan in 1948, and came to the United States in 1962. He then spent four decades working for aerospace firms, mainly Boeing, before he was arrested in 2006. Documents found in his home detailed his long relationship with Chinese intelligence, and his passing on technical details of the Space Shuttle (which Chung spent most of his career working on), in addition to the Delta IV satellite launcher, the F-15 fighter, B-52 bomber, CH-46/47 helicopters, and several other military systems. Chung was still working as a consultant for Boeing when he was arrested. He now faces 90 years in jail. He is the second person, and first American, convicted under the 1996 Economic Espionage Act. His lawyers admitted that Chung possessed thousands of classified documents in his home, but tried to make the case that he never actually transferred any of this material to Chinese intelligence. The jurors did not believe this defense, but Chung will appeal his conviction.
