Ex-Boeing engineer charged in China spying case

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former Boeing engineer was arrested on Monday on charges of stealing trade secrets for China about several aerospace programs, including the Space Shuttle, the U.S. Justice Department said.

It also announced a separate case in which a U.S. Defense Department official and two others from New Orleans were arrested on Monday on espionage charges involving the passing of classified U.S. government documents to China.

"We take every one of these cases very seriously," Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein told a news conference.

"The threat is very simple. It's a threat to our national security and to our economic position in the world, a threat that is posed by the relentless efforts of foreign intelligence services to penetrate our security systems and steal our most sensitive military technology and information," he said.

Department officials said Dongfan "Greg" Chung, 72, of Orange, California, who was employed by Rockwell International from 1973 until its defense and space unit was acquired by Boeing Co in 1996, was arrested without incident at his residence.

He was accused in federal court in California of espionage involving economic secrets, conspiracy and other charges. If convicted, he faces a potential sentence of more than 100 years in prison, the officials said.

Chung, a China native who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, held a secret security clearance when he worked at Rockwell and Boeing on the Space Shuttle program, the officials said.

He retired from the company in 2002, but the next year he returned to Boeing as a contractor, a position he held until September 2006.