Hyperdrive
Second China-Bound Apple Car Worker Charged With Data Theft
- Apple engineer was caught taking photos of robocar designs
- Arrest comes amid major U.S. crackdown on Chinese espionage
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An Apple Inc. hardware engineer was charged by the U.S. with stealing the iPhone maker’s driverless car secrets for a China-based company, the second such case since July amid an unprecedented crackdown by the Trump administration on Chinese corporate espionage.
Jizhong Chen was seen by a fellow Apple employee taking photographs Jan. 11 with a wide-angle lens inside a secure work space that houses the company’s autonomous car project, about six months after he signed a strict confidentiality oath when he was hired, according to a criminal complaint in federal court in San Jose, California.