3. Suck, Squeeze, Burn, Blow

A couple quick notes before we get started. Throughout the rest of the series, you'll hear people refer to GE. They're usually talking about a division of the General Electric Company that made aircraft engines, GE Aviation. Today it's an independent company called GE Aerospace. So you'll hear people use all these terms and they basically mean the same thing. Also, this is the third episode of this series. If you missed the first two, we recommend going back and listening in order. Thanks.

Do you know what that is?

It's loud.

It's loud, Drake.

You want to talk about where we are and what we're seeing.

We're at the Paris Air Show, and that noise in the background is kind of advanced fighter jet doing loops above us in the sky all around us. Wow. The Paris episode takes place every two years. It's been happening since nineteen oh nine, almost as long as airplanes have existed. It's held at Le Bourges Airport, which is actually where Charles Lindbergh landed after his famous flight across the Atlantic

This is the greatest repository of knowledge about the industry you're going to find on a global basis.

This is Richard Abolafia, a consultant in the aviation industry, and who are some of the biggest companies here.

The charismatic megafauna are the airframers. So you've got following Airbus, Lockeyed, Martin, folks like that. And then you've got the engine ecosystem led by General Electric and to well dozens and hundreds of thousands even of companies going down to.

The second, third, and fourth tier of the supply chain.

People are here to network and to show off. There are all these huge exhibition halls full of booths displaying products like control systems, landing gear, radar transponders. Outside aircraft are lined up along the taxiway, shining in the bright sun in all their glory. There's all sorts of eye candy here in all directions. But we spent the majority of our time looking at one thing, the.

GE nine X aircraft engine. It's the most powerful commercial jet engine that's ever been made.

The GE nine X, made by GE Aerospace is outside on its own little stage with its own security guards and a velvet rope. First it's huge.

It's gigantic. I mean, at its widest the sort of intake fan blade section is almost twelve feet in diameter, so you can see inside it, and it looks really complicated. I even having done the reporting we've done, like, can't make much sense of what I'm looking at, honestly, But if you did have a little bit more of technical proficiency, like Richard, who definitely has a little more technical proficiency than we do, and he says, jet propulsion is actually

Suck, squeeze, burn, blow.

Suck, squeeze, burn, blow.

You're sucking air in, you're squeezing it, you're compressing it in several stages of a compressor.

Burn, of course, is the combustor that's an engine, just like a car engine. It's burning fuel.

And then blow, of course, is what comes out the back that gives you your propulsion.

Simple and yet really hard to perfect, because making an engine is one thing. Making it light enough and powerful enough to fly through the air is another. Making money on it is another, and having everyone land safely at the end of the day every single time is still another. The steaks are incredibly high, so being able to make engines like this puts ge into a very exclusive club.

There are only three companies and two countries in the entire world that can build a decent commercial jet engine, General Electric and Bratton Whitney of the US and Rolls Royce in Britain.

None of those companies you'll notice are Chinese. There are all sorts of areas where Chinese companies have caught up with and surpassed their Western competitors. Today, a smartphone made by China's Huawei is just as advanced as an iPhone, and a bid electric car is on par with the Tesla and a fraction of the price. But when it comes to commercial aviation and commercial jet engines, no dice.

Obviously, the Chinese government wants to change that. They claim that their latest fighter jets already rival Americas, and China's state owned airplane maker Comac is currently making commercial planes meant to compete with Airbus and Boeing. But Chinese passenger jets are still heavily reliant on tech from Western companies, which makes the Paris Air Show a very compelling destination for a certain type of government employee. What about spy so vice.

There's no question, there's no question. You know you re enter Shoe.

Yeah, June.

Shoe was here back in twenty seventeen. But of course to get to the Paris Ara show, he and his colleagues had to take precautions. They used a front company to get their visas and they didn't fly directly to France.

June seventeenth, early morning, flew to Athens.

They flew into Athens FBI specialises in Bradley Hall.

They went to Santorini where they rented a villa.

June eighteenth, took ferry to Santorini.

We have photos of the villa. In the view from the villa, it was, it was stunning. We also have photos of them in the hot tub with what appeared to be narcotics.

We also have.

Photos of them with women, some in the hot tub, some and other locales. So basically it looked like these five or six MSS officers who were on this trip were a bunch of lads out.

On the lash.

To use the British term for right. They were there to party, so that if anybody was watching them, they wouldn't look like a group of MSS officers there to do spycraft. They looked like a bunch of guys doing a big European trip where you you drink, you corrouse, et cetera.

The lads out on the lash, as Bradley would say, partied their way through Venice, Verona, Florence Rome.

And ultimately, after five days of what we call a surveillance detection route, the team determined they were clean. They bought tickets for cash at the airport June.

Twenty second through to Paris and.

Went straight to the Paris Air Show. We could see which gate they entered. We know they spent a lot of time around an area where the one of the US Predator drones was set up. We have a couple images of that. They had at least two meetings with other individuals, either at the Paris Airshow or around the Paris air Show, and that's what they were there to do. Ultimately, they were there to mix and mingle, and they certainly seem like they did.

On top of all that, Shoe had another job to do. He had to go shop it for his boss.

One briefcase, two LaCosta T shirts.

For his boss's boss or his boss's boss's wife, one new meal.

Purse, one Zanga belt, one Amblo.

Brislet and for the Big Boss. Shoe really splashed out two.

Bottles in the toll, one Zaya clutch, one box of macaron.

He spends thousands of euros and yet when he gets home, it's clear his gifts don't get the reaction he was hoping for.

When to work, gave on all the gifts didn't buy enough.

It was a small enough thing, but it bugged him and it was one of a growing number of indignities he suffered. In twenty seventeen, the year marks the kind of inflection point for Shoe. He begins to struggle at work and also at home, but that same year he would get introduced to a new source, the kind of source that could change everything.

This is going to be the highlight of Shoe's career. This is going to be the recruitment that is going to set him aside from all of his peers. This is big. This is a very big thing.

From Bloomberg News and iHeart Podcasts. This is the Sixth Bureau. I'm Jordan Robertson and I'm Drake Bennett. Throughout twenty seventeen, Shoe's personal life was in the dumps. She really starts to sound like he's stuck reading his diary. You can see him questioning his life choices.

May nineteenth, feeling agitated in the past couple of days, feeling like I'm abandoned by the whole world. Work, relationship, money, none of it is going well.

On the romance front. He'd been spending a lot of time with one of his mistresses, someone he worked with at the MSS, actually the one he called Peach in his diary. But now things with Peach were taking a turn.

April twenty eighth, message to the Peach, but didn't receive a nding reply. Not going to reach out anymore speaking of a relationship, Peach obviously doesn't care anymore, not even replying to messages.

Breakup is real.

As the summer wore on, things only got worse.

August seventeenth, Peach heartless, saw me in the rain yesterday morning, walked by with her umbrella without stopping. She did not sit next to me at the breakfast either. I reached out to her on which had after she was very cold toward me. I feel like I was humiliating myself.

Things weren't going any better for you financially.

I lost it so much in star market, and I tucked myself into a financial hole.

What a shame? Feeling so terrible? When does it all end?

Work also sucked. Shoe's boss, joh Rom had been a mentor to him for years, but now Shoe felt taken for granted much twenty.

Sevens John rejected new receipt. Today such an ungrateful person has no shame. I will have my revenge.

He would get promoted and then be berated. He would have an amazing case and get a beautiful end of the year review and then be crushed a week later because a decimal point was wrong on a receipt.

April twenty eight, relationship with Jaw has dropped a below freezing point.

John underminded me, I need to adjust my.

Mindset so that that yo yoing between your great and you're terrible clearly was having an impact on his state of mind.

During dinner job when nuts and said I'm poor at a management draw has tended against me.

Just like that.

I think my relationship with him would never be the same again having a leader like this? What's the point?

Life wasn't where he wanted it to be, even though compared to your average person, to be that high up within the MSS in China would seem like a pretty, you know, auspicious life. But my interpretation was that he didn't see it that.

Way and low point in my life.

Nothing works my way and the liears get their ways.

But amidst all of this disappointment and humiliation, Shu did still have a job to do. He had hacks to manage and bosses to deal with. He had to keep finding new engineers to come give talks in Nanjing, and if you could find a really good one, it could turn his life, or at least his career around. He could get back on his feet.

And he did.

And it wasn't by hacking into a computer or breaking into a hotel room or doing some special spy thing. It was through a tool you've probably used yourself, something extremely ordinary.

LinkedIn.

Yeah. LinkedIn also known as one of the most boring places on the Internet, but not to the MSS.

It was like a candy store.

This is James Olsen, the former CIA officer we've been hearing from. He was also an expert witness for the prosecution in Shoe's case.

LinkedIn is a wonderful spotting tool for the MSS.

A spotting tool, meaning they go hang out on LinkedIn looking for sources for people who have access to the information they want, like aviation engineers, and with LinkedIn.

We're handing it to them. They've got their resumes on there, they brag about the projects they've been working on. It's all right there.

And that's where Shoe or someone at the sixth Bureau spotted the profile of a GE engineer named David John.

He had access to very sensitive programs at G Aviation, working on this composite material, this lightweight technology.

Remember that huge engine we stood next to at the Paris Air Show, the GE nine X. Well, part of what's so special about that engine is that key elements of it are made out of carbon fiber composite. When you make something out of carbon fiber, you can make it both lighter and stronger than if you've made it out of most any other material, say metal. And as you can imagine, details about how GE Aerospace uses carbon

And that's why when Shu saw this LinkedIn profile, he said, Bingo, Jackpot, exactly what they want, and I'm going to go get it.

David was born and raised in a rural village in China. Being Chinese is also part of what made him an attractive target for the MSS. The MSS is known to specifically target Chinese people living and working abroad, people who might be susceptible to appeals to their sense of patriotism or threats to their family members back home. David was the first in his family to go to college, then moved to the US to get his engineering PhD in composites.

They reach out. Obviously, shoot doesn't say Hi, I'm from the MSS, and I'd love to explore how we can collaborate to serve China. The MSS is smarter than that, so Shu doesn't even make the first contact. Instead, it's a dean at n UAA.

Hello, I am sorry to bother you i phone. I'm in charter of the International Cooperation and Exchange Office at the Ninegenia University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. I learned from your alliging resume that you have accumulated wealth.

The MSS recruited a respected person to make the first contact. That added to the likelihood that Xing would be impressed, would be flattered if someone of that stature would be reaching out to him personally.

Many eminent talents like you Chen Poune continued come to NUAA to share their expertise.

And UAA can pay for the cost of your trip back to China for the exchange. If you're interested, please feel free to contact me.

David, it seems was flattered by the invitation.

Chian for how are you? Thank you for email. I've been working at GE for over ten years after graduating with a doctorate in the US. I first worked for five years at G'SRND department, then into New twelve.

Plus he already happened to be planning an upcoming trip to China at.

The end of May to see my parents. My hometown is in Krujo when I passed by Nanjing. If time allows, I am happy to pay a visit to Nuaa. I can confirm once my itinery is finalized.

The emails between David and Chen continue through the spring into early May, and as they do, Chen gets more and more specific about what he wants David to share on his talk, and even what it could be called.

Application design and manufacturing techniques of compositive materials and aircraft engines composites.

David's careful in his response. He says he can't discuss any proprietary information from his work, but before he goes to China he does something that will come back to haunt him. He copies about forty one thousand files off his GE work computer, and then, as he's getting ready for his trip, he transfers five of those files onto his personal computer, the one he's planning to take to China. At no point does he mention any of this to anyone at GE.

On June first, twenty seventeen, David jun arrives in Nanjing. Chen Fung picks him up and takes him to his hotel, which is on the NUAA campus. The next morning, over tea in the hotel lobby, Chen Fun introduces him to a man who he says works with the university. He says the man's name is Chu Huei. Surprise, surprise, it's Chu Yen June. The group goes to lunch, then David gives his presentation to a room of about twenty five people.

Jiang gave the talk, course raved about it, how smart he was, and they're asking questions.

But David doesn't answer most of the questions because he says they touch on sensitive ge work.

They're kind of probing. They're seeing how far he will go, whether he is someone who can be induced to talk more than he should.

After the presentation, Chen Fong hands David cash three five hundred dollars. He says it's for the talk and to cover his travel. At dinner that night, Chew huey aksu Yen June presents David with two boxes of fancy tea. They say they're goodbyes, and David heads back to the US. We reached out to NUAA and Chenfog for comment, but neither responded.

Once David is home, Chew Huay messages him over wee chat to thank David for his talk. He invites him to come back soon.

You're welcome to visit Nuanja again next year.

Six months pass, Hue goes to the Paris Air Show, Peach breaks his heart. His boss continue used to write him, and then in December, David JHN says he's coming back to China.

Hello, department, had Chew, It's been a while since we last caught up.

David says he has another trip book and he seems eager to give another talk at NUAA. Shoe seems eager too, he responds just a few hours later, I.

Will try my best to arrange it for you.

Come Starbin Ninjin and we can't have a chat, well come back.

As the messages continue, David repeatedly asks Shu what material he should bring with him to China. He no longer seems concerned about revealing sensitive GE information. Instead, his main concern seems to be giving Shoe what he wants for Shoe just had to feel like a huge break. He had an enthusiastic source inside GE working on one of the company's most coveted technologies, a potential gold mine. But David John wasn't writing these messages himself. He was being told what to say.

We had to have the communication look authentic.

And at this point of course they're actually talking to Bradley Hull, FBI Special.

Agent Bradley Hall.

We had to make the story seem as accurate and truthful as possible. I want it for my counterpart in the MSS to see and to read and think it's still my guy. He's still working for me. The goal of a good intel operation is to talk to the officer, you know, spy the spy.

David was now working with the FBI. That's who Shoey and June was talking with, and he was falling for it.

That's when you cast your line to see if they if they'll at least nibble, and they bit.

On the next episode.

Obviously, the guy's kind of in shock to FBI.

People come walking in.

So when I first thought, I wasn't sure what it was because it was a Mandarin and I saw a face in a military uniform, which makes it government.

You're going head to head with the very smart people on both ends and each side has to be smarter than the other, and I can just see the jubilation with the FBI that he's coming our way.