Smuggled Anti-Submarine Warfare Technology From US To Military University In Shaanxi, Chinese Businessman Imprisoned

Illustration of a submarine. (Wikimedia Commons/US Navy\/Lt. Scott Miller)

JAKARTA - A Chinese businessman was sentenced on Wednesday to two years in prison after he admitted to smuggling marine technology linked to anti-submarine warfare capabilities from the United States for the benefit of a Chinese military university.

Shuren Qin, the businessman who founded a company that sells oceanographic instruments, was sentenced by US District Judge Denise Casper in Boston after admitting he illegally exported a device called a hydrophone that can be used to monitor sound underwater.

Prosecutors demanded a sentence of 7.5 years in prison and required him to pay a fine of $20,000. His guilty plea was conditional, allowing him to appeal Casper's verdict, not to suppress the evidence against him.

The marine biologist was indicted in 2018 amid growing US concerns about a national security threat from China, a continued focus of President Joe Biden's administration. Qin, now 45, has served three months in prison following his arrest.

Lawyers defending him said Qin founded LinkOcean Technologies Ltd., in China in 2005, to provide scientists with oceanographic instruments. Qin then immigrated to the United States with his family in 2014 as a permanent resident.

Prosecutors said Qin from 2015 to 2016 exported hydrophones to Northwestern Polytechnical University, a Chinese military research institute involved in underwater drone projects, by defrauding US suppliers and without obtaining an export license.

His lawyer said Qin was unaware of the university's intended purpose for the product, which also has civil and scientific uses.

"This is not a secret technology," said Qin's lawyer, Sara Silva, citing Reuters September 9.

Qin, who lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts, in the Boston area of the United States, pleaded guilty in April to 10 counts, including conspiring to commit export offences, visa fraud, money laundering and smuggling.

Prosecutors initially also accused Qin of exporting unmanned surface vehicles and robotic ships, accusing him of supplying $8 million worth of goods to Chinese government-controlled entities.

However, he only admitted to charges relating to 60 hydrophones worth about $100,000.