A dual U.S.-Chinese citizen formerly employed as an engineer at a Southern California company has admitted to stealing U.S. trade secrets for next-generation national security technology. 

Though Chenguang Gong, 59, of San Jose, pleaded guilty to one count of theft of trade secrets, he remains free on a $1.75 million bond, according to the Justice Department.

U.S. District Judge John F. Walter scheduled sentencing for Sept. 29. Prosecutors said Gong faces a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

According to his plea agreement, Gong transferred more than 3,600 files from a Los Angeles-area research and development company where he worked, to personal storage devices during his brief tenure with the company last year.

Federal prosecutors said the files Gong transferred include blueprints for sophisticated infrared sensors designed for use in space-based systems to detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. Other files were said to have included blueprints for sensors designed to enable U.S. military aircraft to detect incoming, heat-seeking missiles and take countermeasures, including by jamming the missiles’ infrared tracking ability. 

Many of the files had warnings in bold letters that the information was proprietary, export-controlled and for “official use only.” 

The FBI executed a search warrant on May 8, 2023 at Gong’s temporary residence in Thousand Oaks, California, and also searched his vehicle and his person. Law enforcement recovered multiple digital devices belonging to Gong, some of which contained the company’s propriety files. The complaint says the FBI, however, did not locate two hard drives Gong used to exfiltrate the company’s trade secret and proprietary information, “and the whereabouts of those drives to date remains unknown.” 

Prosecutors said Gong repeatedly denied processing those hard drives or knowing where they were located in May 2023 interviews with the FBI. Gong was arrested on federal charges on Feb. 7, 2024, but was later released on bond. 

Court documents say Gong first entered the United States in or around 1993 and became a U.S. citizen in 2011. His resume states that he earned a Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Clemson University and completed some PhD work at Stanford University, according to the complaint.

In an aerial photo, single-family homes line the shore of Westlake Lake on July 3, 2025 in Thousand Oaks, California. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

Law enforcement also said Gong applied to “Talent Programs” administered by the People’s Republic of China while he was employed at several major technology companies in the U.S. between approximately 2014 and 2022. 

While employed at a U.S. information technology company headquartered in Dallas, Gong in 2014 sent a business proposal to a contact at a high-tech research institute in China focused on both military and civilian products, prosecutors said. In the proposal, Gong described a plan to produce high-performance analog-to-digital converters like those produced by his employer. 

In another “Talent Program” application from September 2020, prosecutors said, Gong proposed to develop “low light/night vision” image sensors for use in military night vision goggles and civilian applications. Gong’s proposal included a video presentation that contained the model number of a sensor developed by an international defense, aerospace, and security company where Gong worked from 2015 to 2019, according to the DOJ. 

Authorities said Gong traveled to China several times to seek “Talent Program” funding in order to develop sophisticated analog-to-digital converters. The Justice Department cited a 2019 email translated from Chinese in which Gong remarked that he “took a risk” by traveling to China to participate in the Talent Programs because he worked for “an American military industry company” and thought he could “do something” to contribute to China’s “high-end military integrated circuits.”