A Taiwan-born US national who admitted passing US military secrets to China has been sentenced to more than 15 years in a US prison. Tai Shen Kuo, a furniture salesman from New Orleans, used gifts and job promises to convince a former Pentagon analyst to hand over secret documents. He then passed the files, which mainly concerned US sales to Taiwan and military communications, to Beijing.
Kuo's Pentagon contact and an intermediary had earlier been jailed.
Court reports said that Kuo, a naturalised US citizen, received $50,000 (£25,000) from an unnamed Chinese agent for passing the documents to Beijing.
The US Justice Department said that he had "cultivated a friendship" with policy analyst Gregg Bergersen, showering him with gifts and dinners and leading him to believe that on his retirement he would be given a job in a company selling American defence technology to Taiwan. Bergersen, was jailed for 57 months in July, although the US government said that had been unaware Kuo was in contact with Chinese officials.
Yu Xin Kang, who helped in the handover of the documents, was sentence to 18 months in jail on 1 August, after pleading guilty to charges of aiding a foreign government agent.