The chairman of Temple University's physics department schemed to provide US technology secrets to China in exchange for prestigious appointments for himself, federal authorities said in charging him with four counts of wire fraud.
Xi Xiaoxing, a naturalized US citizen who was born in China, appeared in federal court Thursday and was released on USD100,000 bond. A person answering the phone Friday at his home said he wasn't available to comment.
He faces up to 80 years in prison and a USD1 million fine if convicted.
Prosecutors said the 47-year-old Xi had participated in a Chinese government program involving technology innovation before he took a sabbatical in 2002 to work with a US company that developed a thin-film superconducting device containing magnesium diboride.
Superconductivity is the ability to conduct electricity without resistance. A superconducting thin film could be key to making computer circuits that work faster. Films of magnesium diboride are particularly promising for this use, and Xi helped developed a way to make them.
The name of the US firm where Xi worked isn't included in the indictment.
Michele Mucellin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Philadelphia, said she couldn't comment on what positions prosecutors say Xi sought out, whether he received them or what exactly the device is.
Ray Betzner, a spokesman for Temple University in Philadelphia, said Friday that Xi was being replaced as chairman of the physics department but remains a member of the faculty.
Xi was awarded a grant in 2004 from the U.S. Department of Defense to purchase the device to use for research, but prosecutors say he then "exploited it for the benefit of third parties in China, including government entities," by sharing it with the help of his post-doctoral students from China.
Xi also offered to build a world-class thin film laboratory there, according to emails detailed by prosecutors. No one else has been charged in the case.
