Daniel Duggan, a 55-year-old naturalized Australian citizen, is currently fighting extradition from Australia to the US on charges related to allegedly training Chinese military pilots in violation of US arms control laws. Duggan has denied these allegations and has been held in an Australian maximum-security prison since his arrest in 2022 upon returning from a six-year stint working in Beijing.
According to Duggan's lawyer, Bernard Collaery, Duggan collaborated unknowingly with a Chinese hacker, Su Bin, who was convicted of stealing US military aircraft designs through cyber espionage. Collaery's legal filing, seen by Reuters, suggests that Duggan feared his cooperation with Western intelligence agencies might endanger his family.
US authorities reportedly discovered correspondence between Duggan and Su Bin on electronic devices seized from Su Bin. The extradition case is set to be heard in a Sydney court this month, two years after Duggan's arrest.
Su Bin, who was arrested in Canada in 2014, pleaded guilty in 2016 to the theft of US military aircraft designs. He is listed among seven co-conspirators with Duggan in the extradition request. However, Duggan's lawyer maintains that Su Bin's connection to Chinese agents was unknown to Duggan and that the hacking case is unrelated to his client.
Messages retrieved from Su Bin's electronic devices indicate that he facilitated Duggan's travel from Australia to Beijing in May 2012. Duggan allegedly asked Su Bin to help source Chinese aircraft parts for his aviation business in Australia.
Duggan's lawyer also mentioned meetings between Duggan and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and US Navy criminal investigators in Tasmania in 2012 and 2013. ASIO and the US Navy Criminal Investigation Service did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
According to Duggan's lawyer, he moved to China in 2013 and renounced his US citizenship in 2016 at the US embassy in Beijing, citing concerns over family safety following "overt intelligence contact by US authorities." Duggan's legal team argues against his extradition, asserting that there is no evidence the Chinese pilots he trained were military personnel and highlighting his acquisition of Australian citizenship before the alleged offenses took place.
The US government, however, contends that Duggan did not lose his US citizenship until 2016.
