Student accused of stealing research from Duke professor under Chinese government order

Last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray said China is the country he is most worried about.

“China, from a counterintelligence perspective, in many ways represents the broadest, most challenging, most significant threat we face as a country,” he said.

Academic espionage is of particular concern, that some Chinese graduate students, at the direction of the Chinese government, are stealing research, most of which is funded by the U.S. military.

An FBI document highlights a case at Duke University, in the lab of Dr. David Smith.

Smith is famous for inventing an invisibility cloak made of a material invisible to microwaves. A young scientist in China, Reupeng Liu, came to study in Smith’s lab on what some believe was a mission from the Chinese government.

“We know that the Chinese have a shopping list of intelligence and technology that they target every year. We know that the research he took from Duke University was on that collection list and we know that certain government officials and operatives met with him while he was in the United States,” said Frank Figliuzzi, former assistant director of counter intelligence for the FBI.

Liu, who was being paid by the Chinese government while a student in the United States, brought his colleagues from China to Smith’s lab.

“They came in and took pictures and measurements of all the equipment that was used to fabricate that, and actually sent that back to China is what I found out, and one was built in Roupeng’s old lab,” Smith said. “It sounds like theft. If we were a company, you might think so.”

Figluizzi’s unit at the FBI opened a case on Liu in 2010, but charges were never brought.

“Was he handled, approached, compromised, recruited, subsidized when he took it back to China? My theory says yes,” Figluizzi said.

Liu strongly denies any wrongdoing.

“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “It’s far away from the truth.”

What is true is that Liu’s Chinese technology company is now valued at $6 billion.

An advanced version of Smith’s invisibility cloak is proudly displayed in the lobby of Liu’s business.