Chinese Spy Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison

A Chinese television executive, Tai Wang Mak, was sentenced to 10 years in prison yesterday for conspiring with his brother and other family members to send information about American defense technology to the People's Republic of China.

In imposing the maximum 10-year sentence, Judge Cormac Carney rejected a probation officer's recommendation for a six-and-a-half-year term for the former broadcast engineering director for the American branch of a Hong Kong-based satellite channel, Phoenix TV, according to the Los Angeles Times. The judge reportedly said the submarine-related information the Mak family tried to export, while unclassified, was sensitive.

Last year, following a trial in Santa Ana, Calif., a jury convicted Tai Wang Mak's brother, Chi Mak, on felony charges relating to the spy ring. The other family members, who were to be tried next, quickly pleaded guilty.

Last month, Chi Mak, a mechanical engineer who is Chinese-American, was sentenced to 24 1/2 years in prison. His wife has agreed to serve up to three years in prison. Tai Wang Mak's wife got three years' probation and their son was sentenced to 11 months.

None of the defendants was formally charged with espionage, but they faced charges such as conspiring to violate export laws, lying to law enforcement officials, and failing to register as agents of a foreign government.