Chinese Leaker Sentenced To Death

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A Chinese computer engineer has been sentenced to death for leaking more than 150,000 classified documents. Huang Yu, 48, was sentenced for leaking the documents to an identified foreign intelligence agency between 2002 and 2011. He was paid $700,000 for supplying the information, reports Shanghai Daily.

The report didn’t specify when the sentencing took place, nor whether the execution has been carried out already. The newspaper did state the Huang was seized in 2011 following an investigation.

Huang, from the southwestern province of Sichuan, worked as a computer technician at a research institute that did work on cryptography for the Chinese government and helped develop a cipher system for the Chinese military.

Shanghai Daily reports that Huang made contact with a “foreign spy organisation” in 2004 after he was let go for poor performance. He contacted the unnamed agency through the internet and offered to sell documents obtained during in the course of his employment.

Huang met with an agent of the agency in Hong Kong and other undisclosed locations in Southeast Asia to deliver the document, which contained state secrets and information regarding the ruling Communist Party, military secrets, and financial issues. In all, Shanghai Daily reports Huang made contact with the agent on at least 21 occasions.

When the trove of documents in Huang’s possession started to run low, he reportedly targeted his wife, who worked in a similar institution, and brother-in-law, who was the general engineer at the institution he worked at.

“He had offered a great deal of classified information in 10 years, which caused serious threats to our core government and military departments,” the state safety bureau of Chengdu said in a statement.