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盗大米种给中国农科院 华人科学家获十年重刑
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这名51岁的华人科学家名叫张伟强，是居住在堪萨斯州的美国永久居民。他曾在一家专门研究转基因大米种子的生物医药公司工作。
根据司法部的文件，他盗窃了大量该公司花费巨额资金和多年时间开发的大米种子。他把这些种子保存在自己家中。
2013年，美国海关与边境安全部门的特工在来自中国的研究人员的行李箱中发现这些种子。这些研究人员拜访过张伟强。他们准备把这些种子带回中国。
被发现的种子跟FBI在张伟强家中找到种子种类相同。张伟强于2013年12月被逮捕。
去年，跟张伟强同案的归化美籍华人严文贵承认，在回答FBI有关把美国的大米样本送到中国的计划时，做了虚假陈述。严文贵供认，一组中国科学家2013年告诉他关于偷盗美国转基因大米的计划。
张伟强为总部在科罗拉多州的生物医药企业文特里亚生科(Ventria Bioscience)工作，是稻米培育员；而严文贵则是在联邦农业部从事研究工作的基因学家。
2012年，47岁的永久居民张伟强和63岁的归化公民严文贵都曾前往中国，当局称他们与中国科学家探讨了自己在美国进行的研究。去年，两人安排中国农业科学院和作物研究所的代表团访问美国。他们将该代表团带到了张伟强的工作场所——位于堪萨斯州的文特里亚农场、他的住所，以及位于阿肯色州的联邦农场，也就是严文贵的工作场所。
根据起诉书所述，中国代表团准备离开美国时，有人在代表团成员的行李中发现了专利稻米种子，在张伟强的家中也找到此类种子。张伟强和严文贵于2913年12月被逮捕。
司法部在声明中说，“张伟强非法向中国的研究机构提供种子，出卖了他的雇主。今天的量刑显示了从美国公司盗窃商业机密的会带来严重后果。”
“我们看到，农业是一个新的热点，”FBI反情报部门的助理主管小罗伯特·安德森(Robert Anderson Jr.,)说。他还表示，过去几年这已经发展成为一种国际性的趋势。“这是非常明显的。在此之前，大部分的国家以及来自这些国家的敌对情报机构偷的都不是这些东西。”
张伟强的量刑正好是美国总统指责中国多年来偷窃美国知识产权的时候。
今年二月，经过审判，张伟强的三项罪名成立：阴谋盗窃商业秘密，阴谋跨越州界转移被盗财产，和跨州运输被盗财产。
http://www.newsweek.com/chinese-scientist-rice-intellectual-property-weiqiang-zhang-874080
A scientist from China has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in the United States for stealing seeds of genetically modified American rice, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
The Chinese scientist, Weiqiang Zhang, 51, was a legal permanent resident living in Manhattan, Kansas. He was working as a rice breeder at Ventria Bioscience, a biopharmaceutical company that creates genetically modified rice. He stole hundreds of rice seeds from the company that had cost millions of dollars and taken years of research to develop, according to the Justice Department. He kept the seeds in his home.
Then in 2013, United States Customs and Border Protection agents found the seeds in luggage belonging to researchers who visited Zhang from China. They were on their way back to China with the seeds.
In February, he was convicted of three counts: Conspiring to steal trade secrets, conspiring to transport stolen property across states lines and transporting stolen property between states.
“Weiqiang Zhang betrayed his employer by unlawfully providing its proprietary rice seeds to representatives of a Chinese crop institute,” Acting Assistant Attorney General John Cronan said in a statement. “Today’s sentence demonstrates the significant consequences awaiting those who would steal trade secrets from American companies.”
The conclusion of the years-long case comes as President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to punish China for what the White House has said is the theft of intellectual property by that country. In a tweet on Wednesday, the president put the annual amount of intellectual property theft at $300 billion.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has also warned about China. Asked during a Senate intelligence committee hearing in February about the counterintelligence risk from Chinese students in the U.S., Wray said, “The use of nontraditional collectors, especially in the academic setting, whether it’s professors, scientists, students we see in almost every field office that the FBI has around the country…. They’re exploiting the very open research and development environment that we have.”
Two public defenders for Zhang did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
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