McGill university: a professor suspected of spying for China

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AFP

Thursday, 25 January 2018 13:07

UPDATE
Thursday, 25 January 2018 13:07

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A researcher from McGill university in Montreal and is suspected of having participated in the theft of american technology sensitive to the benefit of China, a folder for which his brother was charged in the United States, according to the edition of Thursday’s daily LaPresse+.

Ishiang Shih is said to have used his own research laboratory at McGill university to analyze a sample of electronic circuits MMIC (monolithic integrated circuit microwave), used in particular in radar equipment of the u.s. army. This sample was sent to the United States, according to the montreal daily.

“I have no comment to make,” replied Thursday, Ishiang Shih to the AFP.

The researcher assured LaPresse+ as the sample was used to “write an application for a research grant”.

His brother, Yi-Chi Shih, has been arrested by the FBI last week and is accused by the american justice for having conducted an “operation aimed at obtaining technology, part of which would have been sent in China”, which is prohibited, according to a release Friday from the u.s. department of Justice.

JYS Technologies, a company in the suburbs of Montreal, owned by the university, was raided last Friday by the federal police in canada. This company has sent $ 800 000 (520 000) to his brother and another accomplice, who has aroused the suspicions of the american federal police.

With the help of an accomplice, Yi-Chi Shih would have set up a company display in the United States to obtain samples of the technology from an american manufacturer to export, particularly in China.

The samples complained of have been sent to Chengdu (China, center) to the company, CGTC, linked to the brother of the researcher in montreal and on the black list of the u.s. department of Commerce because of its “involvement in the provision of materials and technologies for military use is not permitted in China,” according to the american justice.

This technology, if it were to be obtained and copied by a foreign actor, “would compromise the commercial interests of americans,” and these “very sensitive information” would also benefit from playing against foreigners who would like to “develop military applications which would be detrimental to our national security”, said the release of the american justice.