A Quebec court will decide later this month whether to grant bail to a former Hydro-Québec employee who is charged with allegedly sending trade secrets to China.
He will return to court in person for his bail hearing scheduled for Nov. 23 and Nov. 24.
Federal prosecutor Marc Cigana had opposed granting bail in Wang’s case, saying he is a flight risk.
“It’s our opinion that, after studying all the circumstances and the evidence, that Mr. Wang is a flight risk; in other words, it’s a first ground objection for bail that he will not come back to court and face the proceedings,” Cigana told reporters after the court hearing on Nov. 15.
RCMP allege that Wang conducted research for Chinese research centres and a Chinese university and that he published scientific articles and filed patents with them rather than with Hydro-Québec. Police also allege he used information without his employer’s consent, harming the utility company’s intellectual property.
RCMP says its national security enforcement team launched an investigation this August after receiving a complaint from Hydro-Québec’s corporate security branch. Wang is alleged to have conducted the crimes between Jan. 1, 2018, and Aug. 22, 2022.
Wang, who has limited knowledge of English and does not speak French, sought to have his bail hearing held immediately on Nov. 15, but was advised by his lawyer to delay. The court said a translator for French-Chinese is required for the next hearing, as at least one witness speaks French only.
Wang had worked as a researcher at the Quebec government-owned hydro utility since October 2016, according to his profile on ResearchGate. Before that, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arkansas and a visiting researcher at Queen Mary University of London. He studied at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing between 2010 and 2016.
Wang has been detained at the RCMP’s headquarters in Montreal since his arrest.
