Something different ... is this legit & true?
China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) has officially confirmed the espionage case of Liu, an engineer sentenced to death for leaking state secrets, reportedly including classified data on the new stealth fighter jet, to foreign intelligence agencies. The case, which
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The Chinese official media did recently publicize this espionage case. The circumstances of the case as publicized are as reported in this article. The culprit was sentenced to death.
However, the last paragraph of the article, which states that “the case involves the FC-31 (J-35)”, is a sheer fabrication. There is no mention in the official circular of the scope of the leaks involved in the case.
The official notice mentions that the culprit was an assistant engineer at a scientific research organization.
China's ground rules:
1. The minimum requirement to enter a research position at a military research institution is a bachelor's degree from a top university; at least a master's degree is usually hired; more than half are doctoral degrees.
A bachelor's degree is promoted to assistant engineer after one year of entry and to engineer after four years;
Master's degrees are promoted to Assistant Engineer after six months of entry and to Engineer after two years;
A doctoral degree is promoted directly to engineer after six months of entry.
The offender is an assistant engineer. This shows that he has worked for a very short period of time. He had very limited access to classified information.
2. In the relevant organizations in China, all personnel involved in classified technology and affairs are first required to assess their personal confidentiality rating. If the employee does not have a confidentiality rating, he will have no access to any classified technology and matters at all. After he has notified the confidentiality level assessment, he will be given a corresponding personal confidentiality level. After that, he can engage in confidential work that is in line with his personal classification. According to my exchanges with the professionals concerned, assistant engineers are not entitled to confidentiality level assessment.
In China's scientific research organizations in the military-industrial field, in addition to the classified technology and classified affairs that have been assessed, there are also classified affairs that have not been assessed.
For example, a certain activity was carried out at a certain time, certain special materials were purchased externally, etc.
These activities or technologies are generally not classified. However, official agencies usually do not voluntarily release this information either. Foreign spy agencies are also very interested in this information. This matter is the focus of leaks.
An assistant engineer leaking core secrets? Very, very, very difficult!