A Florida resident and naturalized U.S. citizen has been sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to acting as a spy for China's Ministry of State Security (MSS). Ping Li, 59, of Wesley Chapel, was also ordered to pay a $250,000 fine and serve three years of supervised release.
According to court documents, Li worked as a "cooperative contact" for China's civilian intelligence agency while employed at Verizon and later at Infosys. Starting in August 2012, he gathered and shared sensitive information with MSS officers, including one he had known since his school days in China.
The Department of Justice revealed that Li collected intelligence about Chinese dissidents, pro-democracy advocates, and Falun Gong practitioners in the United States. He also shared internal company materials from his employers, including training documents and information about cybersecurity incidents like the 2021 SolarWinds attack. Communications with his MSS handlers were conducted through anonymous Gmail and Yahoo accounts.
This case highlights ongoing concerns about Chinese espionage activities in the United States. Recent data from the House Committee on Homeland Security shows over 55 cases of Chinese Communist Party-related espionage across 20 U.S. states between January 2021 and October 2024. The committee's report indicates that approximately 80% of economic espionage prosecutions involve conduct benefiting the Chinese state.
The conviction comes amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and China over cyber espionage, with American authorities currently investigating a large-scale cyber campaign by a Chinese state-sponsored group targeting U.S. telecommunications companies.
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