The US Department of Justice announced that a federal court on Friday convicted a Chinese intelligence agent of economic espionage for attempts to steal technology from both US and French airlines.

Xu Yanjun, an official in Jiangsu Province for the Foreign Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of State Security, was convicted in a Cincinnati court on two counts of conspiracy and attempted economic espionage, as well as three other counts of stealing trade secrets, the Ministry said.

Both counts of economic espionage for which he was convicted are punishable by US law with up to 15 years in prison, while each of the other three counts carries a 10-year prison sentence.

“Xu attempted to steal technology related to GE Aviation’s exclusive composite aircraft engine fan, which no other company in the world has been able to duplicate, to benefit the Chinese state,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

According to the indictment, the Chinese Ministry of State Security assigned Xu to identify all employed experts by these companies and to attract them to China under the pretext of attending university conferences by paying for their flights.

He was arrested in Belgium in 2018, where he had apparently been lured in a counter-intelligence operation, in the belief he would meet a General Electric employee on the trip. He was then extradited to the United States in October 2018 to face trial.

Two Jiangsu security officials, who appear to have worked under Xu, six hackers, and two employees of the French company were listed as accomplices in the operation in the 2018 charges.

The indictments revealed efforts to access specific computers and collect information from engines and parts using malware and phishing techniques.

China had denied the US accusations, stressing, in the words of its Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, that the US was "making something out of thin air."