U.S. Charges Two Chinese Nationals With Hacking COVID-19 Vaccine Research

The Department of Justice announced that charges have been filed against two Chinese nationals for allegedly hacking organizations involved in developing coronavirus vaccinesLi Xiaoyu, 34, and Dong Jiazhi, 33, are facing a laundry list of crimes that were laid out in an 11-count indictment.

The indictment claims that the men were working for their own profit and at the behest of the Ministry of State Security, which is China's main intelligence service. 

The two were also accused of targeting Chinese dissidents and human rights groups in the United States, Hong Kong, and China. Officials said they had been engaged in illegal activities for at least ten years.

"China has now taken its place, alongside Russia, Iran, and North Korea, in that shameful club of nations that provide a safe haven for cybercriminals in exchange for those criminals being 'on-call' to work for the benefit of the state, here to feed the Chinese Communist Party's insatiable hunger for American and other non-Chinese companies' hard-earned intellectual property, including COVID-19 research," said John C. Demers, head of the Justice Department's National Security Division.

Photo: Getty Images


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