Two Chinese Nationals Charged With Illegally Exporting AI Microchips to China
The chips were extremely powerful, which may have made them exceedingly useful for China’s move to push ahead on AI technologies through one of its traditional research methods…technology theft.
More Chinese citizens have been arrested for more nefarious activities in our country.
A few weeks ago, we reported on three Chinese students illegally importing biological materials, claiming they were for research.
Now, two Chinese nationals have been arrested and charged with illegally exporting to China microchips used for Artificial Intelligence.
Chuan Geng, 28, of Pasadena, and Shiwei Yang, 28, of El Monte, exported the advanced Nvidia chips and other technology to China from October 2022 through July 2025 without the required licenses from the U.S. Commerce Department, the Justice Department said, citing an affidavit filed with the complaint.
According to the affidavit, Geng and Yang’s El Monte-based company, ALX Solutions, was founded in 2022, shortly after the U.S. imposed sweeping export controls on technology to China to slow Beijing’s military modernization and began to require licenses for the chips. China opposed the U.S. move as harming normal trade.
Over 20 shipments from ALX went to shipping and freight forwarding companies in Singapore and Malaysia, which are often used as transshipment points for illegal goods to China, a federal agent, who works for the Commerce Department, said in the affidavit.
ALX received a $1 million payment from a China-based company in January 2024 and other payments from companies in Hong Kong and China, not from the freight forwarding companies, the agent said.
The FBI arrested two Chinese nationals on Saturday on charges alleging they knowingly exported to China tens of millions of sensitive microchips used in artificial intelligence (#AI) applications, in violation of the Export Control Reform Act. Details: https://t.co/Z05cXhQsg4 pic.twitter.com/Y1yC5aJQwm
— FBI Los Angeles (@FBILosAngeles) August 5, 2025
It turns out, the chips were extremely powerful, which may have made them exceedingly helpful for China’s move to push ahead on AI technologies through one of its traditional research methods…technology theft.
The California-based company received payments from companies based in China and Hong Kong, according to the DOJ, but never from the Malaysian and Singaporean companies.
The defendants are also accused of mislabeling a shipment as “subject to federal laws and regulations” in the hopes of avoiding inspection, but the chip actually required a license, according to the DOJ press release.
That chip, the complainant says, is the “most powerful GPU chip on the market” and is “designed specifically for AI applications,” such as those used “to develop self-driving cars, medical diagnosis systems, and other AI-powered applications,” the DOJ release said.
If convicted, the pair will face 20 years behind bars.
Ms Yang was arrested on Saturday while Mr Geng surrendered himself to the authorities soon after, the DOJ said.
The pair appeared in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday, the DOJ said. If found guilty they could face up to 20 years in prison.
ALX Solutions does not appear to have a website, according to court documents. A website for ALX-Cloud, which specialises in cloud computing services, states that it is a subsidiary of the company.
I have to say, the number of recent arrests makes me question exactly how much the Biden administration was paying attention to Chinese spy activities versus the scrutiny it was giving patriotic Americans.
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Comments
Kick them all out, What are you waiting for!
What % of the 300K Chinese here as college students are spies?
Answer: likely most of them.
Boot them ALL out. They’d steal a hot stove and come back for the smoke.
we better increase our reliance on drones etc as china is building their war machines and probably using our superior chips to do so
Enough already! We need to take serious action against the Chinese. The book, “Red Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win” by Peter Schweizer lays it all out. Start with the universities. No more student visas. The universities love these students because they come with full tuition, and universities will do anything for money. Yes anything. Lenin is alleged to have said: “The capitalists will sell us the rope we hang them with. Still true. This is an inherent weakness of a commercial republic. Everything is for sale. That’s why we need government to stomp hard on those who would sell us out. Unfortunately many of our politicians and officials are also for sale. See Schweizer’s book. In particular the Biden family.
Next. Do not allow the Chinese to own American land. Not directly or through Intermediaries. Make that a serious felony. Deport all Chinese nationals who came in illegally. Ignore or arrest any judge who tries to interfere. I’m sure some of them are on the take too.
Chinese espionage differs from the Soviet era kind. The Chinese like to operate through lots small stuff over long periods. The Russians went for big things. They too operated commercially. See the book, “Dossier” by Edward J. Epstein. He focuses on Armand Hammer. Highly recommended. Read it many years ago.
“This is an inherent weakness of a commercial republic. Everything is for sale.”
Including many of our Senators, Representatives, judges, academic institutions, journalists, talking heads…
If any of us believe our masters care about America, we are sadly mistaken. They only want to enrich themselves.
Look at anyone in Congress. Do we believe they got that money through legal means? Do we think those campaign contributions don’t come without strings attached?
China has bought America, on the cheap.
You didn’t really think China was letting millions of its citizens out into the world out for a sense of freedom and prosperity for them did you?
If we deport them, who will run our Chinese restaurants, dry cleaners, and build our railroads?
Chinese… doing the jobs Americans won’t do.
Hunter needs a job.
dnc: this is clear xenophobia by trump and his wht supremacists against *citizens of the usa*
Fortunately, the chips these spies stole were one of the versions that think Mao was a black woman and Xi is a midget furry. “Oh, bother.”
Eh, two low level AI chip shippers get busted ..,
… while universities ship massive amounts of R&D out the door, Chinese spies had the run of the government & telecom systems and US executives outsource manufacturing to china for years while they learn from those to build competitors.
It’s a start, I guess. Trump gets it – CCP are thieves.
When will the nation come to realize that China is the enemy?
Sometimes I consider that Nixon was the Worst Republican Ever, But then I remember that the field is so crowded.