Journalists gather for a product launch event at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, on Sept. 12, 2018. Corporations like Apple must always be on their toes against would-be agents stealing their secrets.
Chen Jizhong was all ready to head for China on Jan. 22 when FBI special agents swooped in on the Apple engineer. Chen's alleged crime, according to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, was to have stolen trade secrets relating to the company's autonomous vehicle program. In doing so, Chen appeared to be following in the footsteps of Zhang Xiaolang, a Chinese compatriot and Apple colleague whom authorities also nabbed as he prepared to flee to China in July 2018. In both cases, the men were planning to start employment with Apple's Chinese competitors in the driverless car market. The Chen and Zhang cases bear some striking similarities but also feature some intriguing differences.
