Chi Mak
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Chi Mak (; born 28 September 1940) was a Chinese-born
naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...
American citizen who worked as an
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
for California-based
defense contractor The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and serv ...
Power Paragon, a part of
L-3 Communications L3 Technologies, formerly L-3 Communications Holdings, was an American company that supplied command and control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance ( C3ISR) systems and products, avionics, ocean products, training d ...
. In 2007, Mak was found guilty of conspiring to export sensitive defense technology to
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. He was not formally charged with espionage as the information was not officially classified. Mak's legal defense was that he thought there was nothing improper about leaving the U.S. with a CD carrying his own published work on U.S. defense technology, despite his training from his employer indicating quite the opposite. He had intentionally released it without his employer's permission at a 2004 international engineering conference. He had been briefed every year on regulations regarding documents designated "For Official Use Only" (FOUO) and items restricted by export controls. His defense argued that making the data accessible to scrutiny by the general public negated its military value and made it acceptable to transport outside the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, despite the fact that Chi Mak was the one who released the information, without authorization. The defense also argued that the data was in the
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
. The information Mak passed on allegedly helped China build its own version of Aegis, an American radar system built to protect military ships. The prosecution indicated that the data was nevertheless export-controlled and that it should not have been shared with foreign nationals without authorization. The
IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...
presentations cited by prosecution in the trial are currently available on a worldwide basis, due to Chi Mak's unauthorized releases. Mak's brother and sister-in-law were apprehended by the FBI after boarding a flight to
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
carrying one encrypted CD which contained defense-related documents. They, along with their son as well as Mak's wife, all pleaded guilty to related charges. They served out their sentence and were deported to Mainland China. On March 24, 2008, Chi Mak was sentenced to 24 years and 4 months in federal prison. Chi Mak died in prison on October 31, 2022, at the age of 82.


Early life

Mak lived in Hong Kong before, in the late 1970s, moving to the U.S. as an immigrant.


See also

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Chinese intelligence operations in the United States The United States has often accused the government of the People's Republic of China of attempting to unlawfully acquire U.S. military technology and classified information as well as trade secrets of U.S. companiesFinkle, J. Menn, J., Viswanat ...
*
Economic Espionage Act of 1996 The Economic Espionage Act of 1996 () was a 6 title Act of Congress dealing with a wide range of issues, including not only industrial espionage (''e.g.'', the theft or misappropriation of a trade secret and the National Information Infrastructu ...


References


Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mak, Chi 1940 births Living people 21st-century American criminals 21st-century American engineers 21st-century Chinese criminals 21st-century Chinese engineers American male criminals American prisoners and detainees Chinese male criminals Chinese prisoners and detainees Hong Kong criminals Naturalized citizens of the United States People convicted of spying for the People's Republic of China Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government