(CNN)A 27-year-old Chinese national was arrested in Chicago Tuesday for allegedly spying on behalf of Beijing, in the same week CIA director Gina Haspel warned against growing Chinese influence abroad.
Ji Chaoqun is accused of acting as an “illegal agent” at the direction of a “high-level intelligence officer” of a provincial department of the Ministry of State Security, China’s top espionage agency, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.
According to the complaint against Ji, he was tasked with identifying individuals for potential recruitment as Chinese spies, some of whom were working for US defense contractors.
