A Canadian citizen who admitted he tried to sell fighter-pilot training software to the Chinese navy was sentenced Wednesday to 24 months in federal prison, in the first sentencing for a newly defined intellectual property crime.
Xiaodong Sheldon Meng, 44, was sentenced on the rare charge of committing economic espionage against the United States. It's the most serious crime under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 and involves stealing trade secrets to benefit a foreign government.
Meng, an engineer, is a Chinese national with Canadian citizenship who lives near San Francisco.
Sounds to me, from reading the article, like they went easy on him. Not wise, as anything that jeopardizes national security must be frowned upon rather sternly. Besides, in Communist China, they'd blow off a spy's head and bill his family for the bullet...
Oh, and, "Bobby Fletcher", you'd best be careful, lest you become Mr. Xiaodong's cellmate!
