Chinese-born chemist convicted of stealing $120M in US trade secrets for CCP

A Chinese-born, naturalized U.S. citizen was convicted Thursday of stealing trade secrets worth up to $120 million from companies that developed a safer coating for the inside of beverage cans and trying to sell the technology to the Chinese Communist Party. Xiaorong You, who began working in the United States nearly 30 years ago, was employed by Coca-Cola and Eastman Chemical Company when she stole trade secrets related to formulations for bisphenol-A-free coatings. She was found guilty following an April jury trial of conspiracy to steal trade secrets, economic espionage, and wire fraud. The trade secrets You, now a native of Michigan, stole were developed at a cost of nearly $120 million by companies including Akzo-Nobel, BASF, Dow Chemical, PPG, Toyochem, Sherwin Williams, and Eastman Chemical Company. The DOJ said You worked with a Chinese corporate partner, Weihai Jinhong Group, as she received millions of dollars in Chinese government grants, including China’s Thousand Talents Program, which aims to steal technology from abroad. Prosecutors said Thursday the evidence “showed the defendant’s intent to benefit not only Weihai Jinhong Group, but also the governments of China, the Chinese province of Shandong, and the Chinese city of Weihai, as well as her intent to benefit the Chinese Communist Party.” Witnesses from chemical and coating companies testified that, while BPA had until recently been used to coat the inside of cans to minimize flavor loss and prevent corrosion, its potential health risks resulted in companies doing expensive and time-consuming research for BPA-free alternatives. She was indicted in February 2019 and hit with a superseding indictment in August 2020.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a bipartisan report in November 2019, concluding China used its Thousand Talents Program over the past two decades to exploit access to U.S. research labs and academic institutions. The FBI has deemed the Chinese effort to be a form of “nontraditional espionage." You, a chemist who received a Ph.D. in polymer science and engineering at Lehigh University, worked in Atlanta from December 2012 through August 2017 as a principal engineer for global research at Coca-Cola, which had agreements with companies to conduct their research and development, and prosecutors said she was one of the few employees with access to BPA-free trade secrets belonging to a host of businesses. You also worked at Eastman Chemical Company in Tennessee from September 2017 through June 2018, where her role gave her rare access to company secrets. You conspired with Chinese national Xiangchen Liu, general manager of what court records referred to as “China Company #1," who would pay her with government funds through an intermediary, Hongmei Fan, a relative of You’s who lived in China. Documents show the trio further formed “China Company #2,” which also stood to profit from the theft. You applied for the Thousand Talents program in the summer of 2017 and received extensive funding through it, also receiving financial support from the “Yishi-Yishi” program funded by the Shandong Province government. “The conduct alleged in today’s indictment exemplifies the rob, replicate and replace approach to technological development,” Assistant Attorney General John Demers, the head of DOJ’s China Initiative, said when announcing the charges in 2019.

Prosecutors said You signed an agreement with Coca-Cola in August 2017 for just under $34,000 when she falsely said she had not retained any trade secrets. Instead, she was looking to sell these secrets in China. Court records detail the scheme, including a summer 2018 flight she took to China, picking up numerous Chinese government officials and flying with them to Italy to meet with representatives of “Italian Company #1.” You was trying to involve the Italian company in her scheme and lied to the Department of Homeland Security about what she had done overseas upon arriving back home. In November 2018, You and Chinese officials again traveled to Italy to meet with the company. The Justice Department’s China Initiative aims to combat Chinese espionage, and the U.S. has charged a host of researchers for concealing their China ties.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/chinese-born-chemist-convict-stealing-trade-secrets-selling-ccp

https://www.justice.gov/nsd/information-about-department-justice-s-china-initiative-and-compilation-china-related

Lawmakers introduce bipartisan bill to create 'regional processing centers' for migrants

A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress representing border states introduced legislation on Thursday aimed at responding to "the surge" at the U.S.-Mexico border by creating "regional processing centers" along the southern border to process migrants. Republican Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas, along with Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, joined together to present the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act, which attempts to help the federal government better manage influxes in migration. The bill would direct the Biden administration to establish regional processing centers that “are not long-term detention facilities, but facilities where DHS can bring multiple agencies under one roof to carry out activities such as criminal history checks, legal orientation programming, issuance of immigration court documents, and communication and coordination with Non-Governmental Organizations,” according to a bill summary.

The bill would also authorize the Homeland Security Department to conduct pilot programs in an effort to improve the asylum process by giving migrants better access to counsel and case management while they await asylum hearings, and it would require DHS to notify local government agencies and nongovernmental organizations prior to releasing migrants so as to avoid burdening local communities. “I’ve seen firsthand how Arizona, and specifically small communities along the border, pay the price for the federal government's failure to fix our broken immigration system,” Sinema said in a press release. “With the Border Patrol estimating that this situation will only get worse, we must address this in a meaningful way that is fair to migrants seeking asylum, takes the pressure off of our border communities, and allows our Border Patrol agents to focus on their primary mission of securing the border,” Cornyn said in a statement of his own. “If CBP expects more apprehensions this year than at any point in the past two decades, we need to create common-sense solutions that will comprehensively address the current surge of irregular migration," Cuellar said. Cuellar, for his part, has stood out among Democrats for diverging from the pack on immigration messaging, questioning the Biden administration’s strategy. “Take into consideration the people on the border. That's all I'm asking. I'm a Democrat. I'm just saying, take us into consideration,” Cuellar said on March 25, continuing, “Let us help you find a solution because this is not the first rodeo that we've been at. I was here in 2014. I was here in 2019. Obama. Trump. We've seen this before, so we want to be helpful." Sinema’s home-state governor, Doug Ducey, declared a state of emergency in Arizona on Tuesday over the border situation, calling in 250 National Guard troops to assist with medical operations and monitor human smuggling trends.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/bipartisan-lawmakers-regional-processing-centers-border

Clarence Thomas calls out liberal court colleagues for inconsistent opinions 'depending on the issues'

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas used a footnote in a murder case to call out his liberal colleagues' apparent double standard for minors, questioning why teenagers should have an absolute right to abortion but can't be held fully responsible for homicide. “When addressing juvenile murderers, this Court has stated that ‘children are different’ and that courts must consider ‘a child’s lesser culpability,” Thomas said in the footnotes of his opinion in Jones v. Mississippi. “And yet, when assessing the Court-created right of an individual of the same age to seek an abortion, Members of this Court take pains to emphasize a ‘young woman’s right to choose.’” “It is curious how this Court’s view of the maturity of minors ebbs and flows depending on the issue,” Thomas continued.

Thomas cited multiple cases in which justices argued that minors were mature enough to be able to decide whether or not to get an abortion, a standard they suddenly abandon when assessing their culpability for violent crimes. One such ruling from nine years ago held that life sentences for juveniles convicted of homicide were in violation of the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, reasoning that such mandatory sentences failed to take into account a minor’s immaturity at the time the crime was committed. That ruling came up again in the case of Brett Jones, a Mississippi man who was 15 years old when he used a knife to kill his grandfather during an argument. In a 6-3 ruling Thursday, the court declined to impose new restrictions on sentencing minors to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jones argued that the previous ruling required courts to assess whether a minor offender was "permanently incorrigible," but the 6-3 decision found that such a requirement was unnecessary. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, dissented, arguing the state should be required to assess if minor offenders have demonstrated the maturity and the ability to rehabilitate themselves. "The question is whether the state, at some point, must consider whether a juvenile offender has demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation sufficient to merit a chance at life beyond the prison in which he has grown up. For most, the answer is yes," Sotomayor wrote.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/clarence-thomas-calls-out-inconsistent-left-leaning-opinions

Other sauces referenced:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/18-1259_8njq.pdf

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-won-t-impose-new-limits-juvenile-sentences-n1264932

>>13490827

What Every American Should Know: Washington DC

https://t2conline.com/what-every-american-should-know-washington-dc/

>>13490976

>>13490979

Hive mind in action..kek!

>>13491002

Looks like a mini Asian budda