Chinese crypto techie sentenced to death for leaking state secrets

A computer technician at a Chinese state encryption lab has been sentenced to death for selling government secrets to foreign intelligence agencies. For nine years Huang Yu, 48, sold 150,000 state documents for "a foreign spy organization" and earned over $700,000, Shanghai Daily reports. These included ciphers for the …

[Mark 85]

And some think penalties in the West are too harsh for computer crimes and spying.... I can't recall even reading when the last time the death penalty was used here in the States for that. The 50's... the Rosenbergs maybe?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, there is Snowden; but they're having a hard time getting him to show up in front of a judge so that he can hand down a death^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H justice.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Officially - there is of coarse the occasional case of locking yourself in a sportsbag in your own shower

[Anonymous Coward]

The Death Penalty was certainly discussed for Robert Hansen an Aldrich Ames. But they thought that putting these guys permanently in solitary confinement only to be let out of their small cell for 1 hour a day.

There are some things worse than dying.

[g e]

'For that'

see title

[Daniel B.]

Well, it's China.

They have a habit of dealing death sentences for a lot of stuff. Especially people who are percieved as threats to the government.

[Voland's right hand]

Re: Well, it's China.

To be more exact - "delayed" death sentence - so it is correctly timed for all "interesting" bits from the prisoner to be recycled and slotted as replacements into the new rich in need of transplant.

[Daniel B.]

Re: Well, it's China.

Ah yes, the "Falun Gong" treatment of involuntary organ donors. Very "efficient".

[Stevie]

Bah!

Flaunting wealth in the Worker's Paradise? Sounds like an express ticket to organ reassignment surgery to me.

[Glenn 6]

In a furter statement by the Chinese government, his death sentance will be carried out by making him ride in either a Chinese-made car or elevator.

[Anonymous Coward]

.... and 29 of his former colleagues have also been punished.

... Just for good measure.

[Voland's right hand]

Re: .... and 29 of his former colleagues have also been punished.

Should that be "relatives". Reading between the lines this sounds like "business as usual" - nepotism off the scale and then some.

He himself, wife, brother in law all working in a classified crypto lab. Who else? Mother? father? nephew? cousin? Cousin's wife? Cousin's cat? Cousin's hamster?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: .... and 29 of his former colleagues have also been punished.

... With all his family and relatives locked up and disowned by the state - Who are they going to send the bill for the bullet?

[ratfox]

Fired for poor performance from a government job. Apparently it's possible, even in China!

[phuzz]

Selling the secrets you're working on to a foreign power is a bit worse than "poor performance". I think we're into "remedial training needed" at least.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

"remedial training needed"

Especially if it didn't align with the core values and mission statement

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Reads a bit like he leaked the menu of the central committee's private caféteria to the CIA.

[John Savard]

And for the rest

I just think it's a pity China has a second-strike capability. It is clearly a country in need of regime change.

[All names Taken]

Tomato, Tomato

Potato, Potato

Well as the song goes ...

There does appear to be a missing sense of formality though?

Perhaps in the West there is a very high chance of nuisance individuals getting in the way of stray bullets or ... ?

[Slx]

Sounds like they're punishing the family too.

China is a very strange place. Just when you think you're in a normal country the mask slips and you remember it's actually an authoritarian regime and the liberal vibe is a complete illusion.

[Version 1.0]

" ... is a very strange place"

Welcome to the USA.

[PNGuinn]

"Just when you think you're in a normal country"

Hmmm ...

How many of us are worried about the march of "progress" in the "free" west?

How often here does the mask "slip"?

Slippery slopes come to mind. It all seems to be happening for such good plausible reasons ...

[Nigel Cro]

Foreign Agency

So, the 'Foreign Agency' is unidentified, but he was being paid in US Dollars...

Or, am I reading too much into this and the payments have been 'normalised' to protect the guilty?

[TJ1]

Re: dollar payments

US$ is the de-facto alternative currency in many if not most countries due to its status as a reserve currency.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: dollar payments

US$ is the de-facto alternative currency in many if not most countries due to its status as a reserve currency.

.. which is one of the things the Chinese are busy undermining, which is worrying the crap out of the Federal Reserve (which isn't, but I digress). Hence the whipping up of anti-Chinese sentiment at every conceivable opportunity.

[NP-HARD]

Peeking Doc with secret source

I'm a bad man

[Metal Marv]

Death by...?

H(u)ang y(o)u ?

[x 7]

I'm somewhat disturbed that my earlier post linking this news release to the recent USA arrest of Chinese smugglers of mil-spec electronics has been censored. Who's putting the heat on? The Chinese or the Americans?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's sad that the death sentence still exists. It's not as if the poor guy had a choice in which country or political system he was born into.

It should be the people handing out death sentences to corrupt policians or even politicians that lie.