The only thing more embarrassing than discovering an atomic traitor high up on your government? Revealing the news by accident via a mysteriously leaked internet video. China’s newest (accused) spy is in radioactively hot water.
Nobody knows how the leaked video — apparently from an internal government briefing — made its way onto YouTube. But the damage is done: Major General Jin Yinan attacks Kang Rixin, general manager of China National Nuclear, as a spy and traitor, claiming he sold national nuclear energy secrets to foreign countries, including the US and France. The news had been suppressed outside of China’s Communist Party, with General Yinan himself explaining “Kang’s case can’t be made public because the damage he has done by selling secrets was a lot more devastating than economic losses.”
China’s a bad place to get busted for espionage. He’s currently imprisoned for life, but he’s lucky to still have his life at all. [South China Morning Post via New Yorker]
Photo: Guang Niu/Getty