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.
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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