A Chinese court sentenced a former scientific researcher to death for espionage and selling state secrets. He has sold tens of thousands of copies of classified information to foreign spy agencies, including 90 top state secrets.

The man, named Huang Yu, was born on July 28, 1974 in Zigong, Sichuan province. He majored in computer science in college and worked for a Chinese traffic encryption institute since 1997.

The Institute is said to have provided secure communication service for the Communist Party of China and the Chinese military. Suspecting that he might be fired from his job because of his poor performance, Huang decided to start selling secrets at the age of 28.

One day, Huang contacted a foreign spy agency online to sell the confidential information he acquired at work, and he met a foreign spy in a hotel in a Southeast Asian country in June. 

Before Huang was detained in 2011, he used his position to make copies of secret documents, including top military secrets. He met with foreign spies 21 times under the cover of attending conferences overseas. He received $700,000 in compensation over the course of 10 years. 

Huang tried to convince his old colleagues to come in on the operation with him after he left the institute in 2004. He also used the access of his wife and brother-in-law to acquire confidential information. They were eventually caught by public security authorities in 2011.

Huang’s wife was sentenced to five years in prison while his sister’s husband received three, both for leaking national secrets. Another 29 people involved in Huang's operation were also punished.