Chinese nationals imprisoned for exporting US technology

Three men arrested for transporting high tech military use US circuits

In two separate cases, three men have been sentenced to federal prison for attempting to transport sensitive and advanced U.S. technology to the People’s Republic of China.

Two men were sentenced yesterday, and another man linked to one of the schemes was sentenced last week to five years in prison.

William Chi-Wai Tsu, 61, a Beijing resident, was sentenced yesterday to 40 months imprisonment for his role in exporting high-tech integrated circuits with military applications to the PRC.

In a separate case, Tah Wei Chao, 53, of Beijing, was sentenced yesterday to 20 months imprisonment after pleading guilty to attempting to smuggle 10 highly sensitive and advanced thermal-imaging cameras to China. Chao’s co-defendant Zhi Yong Guo, 50, also of Beijing, was sentenced on July 27 to five years in federal prison for his involvement in the thermal-imaging cameras scheme.

Prosecutors argued in a sentencing brief that Cheerway was nothing more than a front company that Tsu used to ship items to his Beijing-based company called Dimagit Science & Technology Co. Ltd. According to the sentencing brief, Dimagit’s catalog was imprinted with images of military craft and clearly explained Tsu’s business: “to facilitate the building of the national defense of China” and to “revitalize the Chinese military industry.”