Physicist pleads guilty to selling technology to China

NORFOLK -- Two years ago, federal agents walked into the Newport News office of physicist Quan-Sheng Shu and issued a warning: Selling space technology to China is a violation of federal arms control laws.

On Monday, Shu admitted he did it anyway.

The 68-year-old scientist pleaded guilty to exporting a defense service without a license, exporting a defense article without a license, and bribery of a foreign official. He faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced in April.

Shu admitted to a lengthy set of facts, laid out in a 20-page statement detailing his four years of negotiations with the Chinese, with the help of an unidentified French company, for the design and development of a cryogenic liquid hydrogen rocket system.

According to the Justice Department, China intends to use the technology to send space stations and satellites into orbit, as well as provide support for manned space flight and future lunar missions from its new Hainan space facility....