China says ex-engineer to be executed for spying

A former Chinese engineer has been sentenced to death for leaking state secrets to a foreign power, Beijing's spy agency said Wednesday, Report informs via AFP.

The man, surnamed Liu, "secretly copied, duplicated, and sold a large volume of state secrets to a foreign espionage and intelligence agency", China's Ministry of State Security said in a post to its official WeChat account.

Liu had worked as an assistant engineer at a research institute and had resigned after believing he had been treated unfairly, the ministry said.

Before leaving, however, he "secretly copied and retained a large quantity of classified materials he had handled, intending to use them later for retaliation or blackmail against his superiors", it added.