US nuclear secrets trial cools co-operation with China Arrest of an energy consultant spurs concern over racial profiling, Ft.com by: Lucy Hornby in Beijing and David J Lynch in Washington
Allen Ho was still reeling from his arrest during a conference in Atlanta, Georgia, when armed Federal Bureau of Investigation agents began interrogating the nuclear energy consultant about his work in China, without any lawyer present.
That business involved hiring retired US nuclear engineers and consultants to advise China General Nuclear Power Corp, the state-owned company that plans to invest in an £18bn reactor in the UK.
Mr Ho, born in Taiwan and a US citizen since 1983, was charged with violating a statute designed to prevent American scientists from helping other countries develop an atomic bomb. The case comes during an era of unprecedented nuclear co-operation between the west and China, but also a time of growing trade friction and accusations of cyber crime and espionage.
Along with Mr Ho, CGN was also indicted on charges of producing “special nuclear material” outside the US without the required approval from the US Department of Energy.
The company said in an emailed statement that it “has long been adhering to the principle of lawfulness and compliance in all our business operation and international exchanges and will carry on following such a principle”.
Wary of being indicted if they step foot on US soil, CGN executives have since skipped meetings run by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (Asme), which sets international standards for everything from school heating boilers to nuclear reactors
This is an issue because engineering decisions made in China affect the world’s reactor fleet. China is the furthest ahead in constructing the European Pressurized Reactor destined for Hinkley Point in the UK as well as the AP1000, an American-designed reactor under construction in China and the US. And under bilateral accords CGN and other Chinese groups will supply components for US and UK reactors.
“China is the only country that can provide the information at present” for the AP1000, said Zhang Qiang, Asme’s chief representative in China. Other forms of international co-operation continue.
The engineers Mr Ho employed told the FBI that they shared only publicly available information with Chinese nuclear companies, according to court documents. Some helped inexperienced Chinese engineers decipher technical manuals at Daya Bay, the French-designed reactor that supplies electricity to Hong Kong.
Others advised on developing a nuclear fuel process so that CGN could avoid paying hefty royalties to the French. They have not been publicly charged.
The case against Mr Ho will rest on testimony from a Taiwanese-American consultant he employed who secretly pleaded guilty 18 months ago to selling subscription-only research reports on nuclear power to China………
Two prosecutions of US citizens of Chinese birth have already unravelled. The Department of Justice in March dropped all charges against Sherry Chen, a hydrologist accused of illegally sharing information about US dams with Chinese contacts. Months earlier, prosecutors abandoned an espionage case against Xi Xiaoxing, acting head of Temple University’s physics department.
“There’s nothing about this case that’s normal,” said Peter Zeidenberg of Arent Fox, Mr Ho’s lawyer who also represented Mr Xi. “There’s an undercurrent running through all these cases and it’s because of these individuals’ association with China.”
Additional reporting by Luna Lin https://www.ft.com/content/87a1b1b4-661d-11e6-8310-ecf0bddad227
