Wellesley Man Admits To Illegally Giving China U.S. Marine Tech

WELLESLEY, MA — A federal judge sentenced a Chinese national to two years in prison for smuggling marine technology with uses in anti-submarine warfare from the United States to benefit a Chinese military university.

Shuren Qin, 45, of Wellesley, was the founder of a company that sells oceanographic instruments and a marine biologist.

Qin pleaded guilty to charges of illegally exporting devices called hydrophones out of the United States to China. Hydrophones are devices that can be used to monitor sound underwater.

According to court documents, prosecutors originally wanted a 7 and a half year prison sentence for Qin, who must also pay a $20,000 fine.

Court documents and defense lawyers say Qin founded LinkOcean Technologies Ltd in China in 2005 in order to provide oceanographic instruments to scientists, then immigrated to the United States with his family in 2014.

Prosecutors say Qin exported hydrophones to Northwestern Polytechnical University, a Chinese military research institute involved in underwater drone projects, by lying to a U.S. supplier and not having proper exporting licenses from 2015-2016.

Qin's lawyer says he was unaware of the school's intended uses for the hydrophones since the school also had a civilian, scientific part.

Qin was previously charged in 2018 out of growing concern about China's national security threat and served three months in jail.

Qin's lawyer argued the hydroplanes are not a top-secret technology.

Qin pleaded guilty in April to 10 counts, including conspiring to commit export violations, visa fraud, money laundering and smuggling.

Prosecutors originally also accused Qin of exporting unmanned surface vehicles and robotic boats and alleged he supplied $8 million in goods to Chinese government-controlled entities.

He admitted to charges concerning 60 hydrophones worth $100,000.