Chinese Spy Used L-1 Visa

Date: Monday, February 03, 2003 3:16 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

This article answers the question regarding the visa used by Qing Chang
Jiang, the Chinese businessman who is accused of spying for China. We
now know that he used an L-1.

L-1 visas are called the intra-company visa because it is used to
transfer aliens to work for a U.S. firms, corporations, or other legal
entities or their affiliates or subsidiaries of a company which already
employs them outside of the U.S. What makes this case particularly
intersting is the fact that Jiang is the president and sole U.S.
employee of EHI Group USA/Araj Electronics. There is a possibility that
Jiang actually sponsored himself for his own visa!

Also note that Rachel Konrad is now with the AP. She used to be with
CNet which did a poor job of covering H-1B. Perhaps we will be getting
more articles of this type from her in the future.

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/5073327.htm

Posted on Fri, Jan. 31, 2003

Judge imposes conditions on man in export case

By Rachel Konrad
Associated Press

A federal judge in San Jose insisted Thursday that the friends and
family of a Chinese businessman accused of shipping missile technology
to China provide $250,000 in cash and property to secure his release,
citing the severity of the charges against him and his flight risk.

In addition, Qing Chang Jiang, jailed since early January, must remain
in Santa Clara County, wear an electronic monitoring device, surrender
his passport, and submit to searches of his body, home and car at any
time for any reason, the judge ruled.

Prosecutors say Jiang, 51, president and sole U.S. employee of EHI
Group USA/Araj Electronics, last year shipped three microwave
amplifiers to Hebei Far-East Harris in Shijianzhuang, China, without a
license.

Hebei shares an address with the 54th Research Institute, a Chinese
military agency. Most exports to the agency are outlawed. The U.S.
government says it poses an ``unacceptable risk of diversion to
developing weapons of mass destruction.''

Microwave amplifiers are used by telecommunications companies to
improve long-distance calls. But they may also be used to boost the
accuracy of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Jiang pleaded not guilty last week to violating export code. He faces
10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Because of the charges' severity and flight risk, Chief Magistrate
Judge Patricia V. Trumbull of the United States District Court in
Northern California rejected an unsecured personal bail bond of $20,000
from Jiang's 21-year-old son, Yi Jiang. She also rejected unsecured
personal bonds up to $250,000 each from two of Jiang's friends.

``I need more than just signatures,'' Trumbull said, insisting on cash
or property that the federal government could immediately seize if
Jiang leaves the country. ``I need his friends or family to really lose
something significant if he doesn't come to the hearings.''

Espionage fears

The case has intensified concerns about foreign espionage in Silicon
Valley. Jiang is at least the fourth Chinese native indicted since
October on charges involving the shipment of equipment or trade secrets
to China from the nerve center of the U.S. technology industry.

Trumbull said immigration agents would review Jiang's L1 visa, which
allows him to operate a business. The visa, which the Immigration and
Naturalization Service may revoke, expires in October 2004.

Trumbull also required Jiang, who began his business in 1995, to seek
and obtain work outside the export industry. If Jiang wants to complete
outstanding sales contracts, the judge said, someone else must finalize
the deals.

The terms of release disappointed both sides.

Jiang's public defender, Lupe Martinez, said prosecutors are
exaggerating the danger posed by Jiang, who came to the United States
in 1990 to study business management at California State
University-Fresno and received a scholarship in 1993 at San Jose State
University.

Jiang, whose oldest son has a full scholarship for an engineering
doctorate at Carnegie Mellon University, is not a flight risk and does
not require onerous release conditions, Martinez insisted. He said
$250,000 in cash or property may violate the Bail Reform Act of 1984,
which says a defendant must be released on personal recognizance or an
unsecured personal bond unless he ``endangers the safety of any other
person or the community.''

``We should not be tempted because `national security' is thrown out as
a mantra that this case is different,'' Martinez said as an interpreter
translated the words into Mandarin for Jiang. ``He has maintained
employment and has deep ties to the community here.''

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Fry said Jiang, whose wife and younger son
live permanently in China, is a flight risk and jeopardizes national
security. He argued that Jiang should be incarcerated until trial in
the spring.

Back to '98

Jiang may have been illegally exporting technology to China since 1998,
when he bought an Intel supercomputer used to model nuclear explosions
and attacks from Sandia National Laboratories, Fry said. Within a year,
the Department of Energy repurchased the computer because agents feared
Jiang would export it.

Federal agents who searched Jiang's home earlier this month found
evidence that he may have exported other microwave amplifiers to
China's military in December, Fry said.

``The technology involved is particularly critical,'' Fry said in
court.

``The end user is particularly dangerous. The defendant is particularly
persistent.''

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