Chinese businessman jailed for stealing US defence secrets

A Chinese businessman, Su Bin, has been given nearly four years in jail after admitting to taking part in the hacking of U.S. defence secrets.

Su, 51, was convicted of taking part in a years-long scheme by Chinese military officers to obtain sensitive military information, targeting projects including the F-22 and F-35 fighter jets and Boeing's C-17 military transport aircraft, reports the Guardian.

Apart from the 46-month prison term, a U.S. district court judge in Los Angeles ordered Su to pay a $10,000 fine.

"Su assisted the Chinese military hackers in their efforts to illegally access and steal designs for cutting-edge military aircraft that are indispensable to our national defence," the Guardian quoted assistant attorney general for national security, John Carlin as saying.

Beijing has repeatedly denied any involvement in hacking but Washington says there is ample evidence.

Prosecutors in an August 2014 indictment said that Su ran a China-based aviation and aerospace company from Canada and had travelled to the U.S. at least 10 times between 2008 and 2014.

He also worked with two unidentified co-conspirators based in China to steal the data.

Prosecutors said that Su admitted sending emails to his co-conspirators telling them which persons, companies and technologies to target with their hacking and translating the stolen material from English to Chinese.

He was arrested in Canada in 2014 and ultimately consented to U.S. extradition.