A former officer with the US Defence Intelligence Agency has been arrested over the weekend for allegedly trying to spy on the United States for China, the Justice Department says.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation took Ron Rockwell Hansen, 58, into custody on Saturday while he was on his way to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to get a connecting flight to China.
The department said he has been accused of trying to transmit national defence information to China and with receiving "hundreds of thousands of dollars" while acting illegally as an agent for the Chinese government.
Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she did not have information on the case.
"But certainly of late there have been some issues between China and the United States. We think China and the US are two major countries and both sides should do more things that strengthen cooperation and mutual trust," Hua told reporters.
In the case announced on Monday, prosecutors said Hansen speaks fluent Mandarin-Chinese and Russian.
He served as a case officer for the Defence Intelligence Agency while on active military duty from 2000-2006, and later continued that line of work as a civilian employee and a contractor.
The government said that between 2013 and 2017, he travelled between the two countries attending conferences and provided the information he learned to China's intelligence service.
He was paid via wire transfers, cash and credit cards. He also allegedly improperly sold export-controlled technology.
"His alleged actions are a betrayal of our nation's security and the American people and are an affront to his former intelligence community colleagues," said John Demers, the head of the Justice Department's National Security Division.
According to court records, the FBI started investigating his activities in 2014. He was unaware of the probe, and participated in nine voluntary meetings with federal agents in Salt Lake City. Utah.
Hansen appeared before a magistrate judge in Seattle on Monday, and is charged in a 15-count complaint.
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