Authorities have arrested a Chinese doctor in Texas for allegedly trying to smuggle cancer-related research back to China.
Officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection reportedly confronted Yunhai Li, 35, in July. Li was employed by the MD Anderson Cancer Center since 2022, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
The office said the authorities working in coordination with Homeland Security Investigations “found evidence Li was attempting to take sensitive medical information abroad during an inspection of his belongings.”
“We were able to detain him as he was trying to get on a flight to China,” Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told Fox26 Houston. “That intellectual property stays with us, so we can save lives.”
Li was charged with theft of trade secrets and tampering with a government record. The theft charge carries a penalty of up to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Court documents viewed by Fox26Houston said Li uploaded sensitive data to his personal Google Drive account while working for MD Anderson, and when the institution found out about it and confronted him, he deleted the files.
On that storage drive, investigators found “unpublished research data and articles representing trade secrets, including material-restricted confidential research data, writings, drawings and models,” according to Fox26 Houston.
The station, citing the court documents, also reported that Li was receiving grant funding through the National Natural Science Foundation of China and was performing research for The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University before and during his employment with MD Anderson – yet did not disclose the conflict of interest to his U.S. employers.
Li has since posted $5,100 bail and bonded out of jail on Monday, surrendering his passport, the station reported.
In June, federal prosecutors charged a Chinese researcher and her boyfriend with smuggling a dangerous crop pathogen into the United States, raising significant concerns over agricultural biosecurity and national security. (RELATED: Chinese Nationals Charged With Smuggling Dangerous Pathogen Into US)
According to federal court documents unsealed Tuesday, Yunqing Jian, 33, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, and her boyfriend Zunyong Liu, 34, are facing multiple criminal counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, smuggling biological materials, and making false statements to federal investigators.
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One way to stop spying is to stop hiring Chinese. DUH!