Investigators look into alleged economic espionage

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A California-based investigation into Chinese citizens allegedly conducting economic espionage has similarities to a case in Charlotte.

Xiwen Huang first appeared in federal court in Charlotte weeks ago on accusations he took trade secret information from a Charlotte company.

The number of cases involving Chinese nationals is no surprise to some experts.

"It's now fairly high on the U.S. radar; there's more attention being paid to it," said Adam Segal with the Council on Foreign Relations.

Court documents and prosecutors allege members of the California ring and Huang applied for and received funding from the Chinese government. However, with tensions already high with China, some think the U.S. must walk a fine line when cracking down on anyone who might receive Chinese funding.

"Chinese students and nationals and others have been a huge contribution to U.S. universities and U.S. tech companies," Segal said.

Channel 9 wanted to know how employees were able to steal the information from tech companies. In both cases, court documents allege suspects ripped information from company databases.

"A lot of folks think about this as a technological challenge and the truth is, in large part it's a people problem," said David Kidd with IT infrastructure company Peak 10.

Kidd said it's important for companies to monitor who has access to what information. 

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