California engineer busted stealing U.S. missile secrets

San Jose, California – A California engineer who quietly walked off with some of the country’s most sensitive missile-tracking technology will spend nearly four years in federal prison, closing a case that prosecutors say underscores the national-security stakes of corporate espionage in the defense sector.

On Monday, 59-year-old Chenguang Gong of San Jose was sentenced to 46 months after pleading guilty to stealing thousands of files from a Los Angeles–area research and development firm where he briefly worked in 2023. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California called the theft “particularly egregious,” noting that the materials Gong took weren’t just proprietary — they were blueprints for systems designed to help the United States detect and survive a missile attack.

According to prosecutors, Gong downloaded more than 3,600 files onto personal devices, including 1,800 after he had already accepted a position with one of the company’s main competitors. The files were marked with warnings familiar in the aerospace and defense world: “PROPRIETARY,” “EXPORT CONTROLLED,” “FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY.” Together, they represented hundreds of millions of dollars in research and development, and decades of work.

The engineering trove included schematics for infrared sensors used in space-based surveillance systems that detect nuclear missile launches, along with designs for technology that helps U.S. aircraft spot and counter incoming heat-seeking missiles. One set of stolen documents detailed systems capable of jamming infrared targeting, a core defensive tool in modern combat.

In court filings, prosecutors argued the theft wasn’t a momentary lapse or a one-off breach of trust. Instead, they described Gong’s actions as the latest in a long pattern of siphoning off sensitive technology to benefit entities in China.

Investigators found that while working for multiple American tech firms between 2014 and 2022, Gong repeatedly applied to Chinese government–run “Talent Programs,” initiatives that U.S. intelligence agencies say are used to recruit scientists abroad to advance Beijing’s military and industrial goals. Prosecutors used those applications to argue Gong knew exactly what he was doing — and whom his work might ultimately serve.

“This was not impulsive,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum. “It represents the culmination of a long pattern of stealing proprietary technology from U.S. companies to benefit the [People’s Republic of China] military.”

Gong faced up to 10 years in prison but received just under four, along with $77,408 in restitution and a $100,000 fine. His dual U.S. and Chinese citizenship, combined with the nature of the materials he transferred, had fueled concerns among prosecutors about the potential damage had the files left the country.

The company whose secrets were stolen was not identified in court records, a reflection of how sensitive — and potentially dangerous — the compromised information is. Prosecutors did note, however, that these were the firm’s “most important” trade secrets, the centerpiece of technologies designed to give the United States an early warning system in the most dire scenarios imaginable.