US authorities have charged three Tianjin University professors and three other Chinese citizens with economic espionage, claiming that they stole sensitive US technology to help Chinese universities and government-controlled companies.
One of the six defendants, Professor Hao Zhang, was arrested on Saturday when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport to speak at a conference. The other suspects are still in China.
Mr Zhang and fellow professor Wei Pang are accused of stealing information about a technology used in smartphones, tablets and GPS devices from their US employers, Skyworks Solutions in Massachusetts andAvago Technologies in Colorado, respectively. The technology also has military applications.