CHINESE researcher You Xiaorong, who worked as a scientist for Atlanta's Coca-Cola has been arrested on charges of stealing company secrets to set up a rival company in China with government sponsorship, reports the Wall Street Journal
CHINESE researcher You Xiaorong, who worked as a scientist for Atlanta's Coca-Cola has been arrested on charges of stealing company secrets to set up a rival company in China with government sponsorship, reports the Wall Street Journal. She 'is accused of an egregious, premeditated theft and transfer of trade secrets worth more than US$100 million for the purpose of setting up a Chinese company that would compete with the American companies from which the trade secrets were stolen,' said Douglas Overbey, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
'Unfortunately, China continues to use its national programmes, like the 'Thousand Talents,' to solicit and reward the theft of our nation's trade secrets and intellectual property,' he said, reported Agence France-Presse.
Ms You was indicted by a Tennessee court for allegedly appropriating chemical results related to soft drink containers - research that cost Coca-Cola almost $120 million.
This latest case of a Chinese-born worker attempting to steal trade secrets for use back home 'exemplifies the rob, replicate and replace approach to technological development,' said John Demers of the US Justice Department's national security division.
She also reportedly hoped to gain funding from the government-organised 'Thousand Talents Plan,' the goal of which, said Mr Demers, adding that it was designed s 'to solicit and reward the theft of our nation's trade secrets and intellectual property'.
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