Beijing: Canadian police on Monday charged an employee of Hydro-Québec with espionage for allegedly sending trade secrets to China.

Yuesheng Wang, 35, is scheduled to appear in court in Longueuil, Quebec, on Tuesday to answer charges of stealing trade secrets, using a computer without permission, fraud and betraying the trust of a public official.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said its National Security Enforcement Team launched an investigation in August, after receiving a complaint from Hydro-Corporate Quebec's security branch.

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According to RCMP Inspector David Beaudoin, Wang is accused of using his position while working for Hydro-Québec to conduct research for the Chinese University and other Chinese research institutions.

According to Beaudoin, he allegedly submitted patent applications and published academic articles "in collaboration with this foreign actor rather than Hydro-Québec".

As opposed to Canada's economic interests, "he obtained this information to benefit the People's Republic of China," Beaudoin claimed.

According to Beaudoin, he used the data without the permission or knowledge of his employer. The offenses were allegedly committed between February 2018 and October 2022.

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According to police, Wang, who works for a provincial utility and lives in Candiak, Quebec, south of Montreal, allegedly had access to the required data as part of his job.

Wang was a researcher who worked on battery materials with the Center of Excellence in Transportation Electrification and Energy Storage, or CETES, according to a statement from Hydro-Québec. The utility claimed that after launching a thorough investigation on its own, its security team immediately alerted the authorities.

Dominic Roy, senior director in charge of corporate security, said that "our detection and intervention mechanisms allowed our investigators to bring this matter to the attention of the RCMP, with whom we have worked closely ever since."

No organization is safe from this type of situation, so we must constantly exercise caution and transparency, and we must not tolerate ethical violations in the workplace.

The company also said that prior access to information related to Hydro-"Cor Quebec's mission" was revoked when the employee's skepticism came to the fore. It states that the organization he worked for produces energy storage devices and technology for electric vehicles.

The public utility Hydro-Québec oversees the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity throughout the Canadian province, as well as its export to parts of the northeastern United States.

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Foreign interference has become a top priority for law enforcement, according to the RCMP, which also said it is collaborating with high-risk industries to strengthen Canada's response and resilience.