Alleged Chinese spy trial: Judge starts hearing case against ex-Hydro employee

LONGUEUIL — The long-awaited trial of a former researcher at Quebec’s electric utility charged with economic espionage for the benefit of China opened Thursday with the Crown beginning to present its case.

Yuesheng Wang, 38, is the first person to be charged with economic espionage under Canada’s Security of Information Act.

“The RCMP investigation initiated following a complaint filed by (the utility) allowed for the collection of documentary and testimonial evidence confirming the accused’s access to confidential Hydro-Québec information,” federal Crown prosecutor Sabrina Delli Fraine told Quebec court Judge Jean-Philippe Marcoux, who is hearing the case.

She clarified that the prosecution contends the information Wang is alleged to have accessed was confidential at the time he was alleged to have shared or mentioned it in applications.

“It may very well be that the evidence reveals that today, in 2025, some of this information is no longer confidential,” she added.

Wang also faces four other charges filed in 2022 and 2024 under the Criminal Code: fraudulently using a computer and breach of trust at the time of his November 2022 arrest, and charges laid in 2024 of committing preparatory acts on behalf of a foreign entity and informing that entity — the People’s Republic of China — of his intentions.

A member of the prosecution team said another charge Wang had faced initially of fraudulently obtaining a trade secret was withdrawn.

Wang, a resident of Candiac, Que., south of Montreal, has pleaded not guilty.

His lawyer told the court Thursday that he intends to file a motion asking for the case to be tossed due to lack of evidence once the prosecution has rested its case.

The Crown noted that in addition to nine witnesses, it has agreed to display the more than seven-hour interrogation by RCMP of Wang at the end of its case.

Defence lawyer Gary Martin informed the judge that if the court doesn’t agree to his motion, Wang will be the only witness he calls.

Wang was employed by Hydro-Québec between 2016 and his dismissal in 2022, working as a researcher for the utility’s Center of Excellence in Transportation Electrification and Energy Storage, known as CETEES. The centre develops technology for electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

A Chinese national on a work visa for his job with the Quebec utility, Wang was first investigated by Hydro’s internal security, who then informed the RCMP.

The Crown alleges Wang submitted applications to Chinese universities under the framework of the Thousand Talents program, a recruitment tool used by the Chinese government to attract foreign-trained scientists to return to work in China and part of its technology acquisition policy.

Delli Fraine said that in these applications, Wang allegedly committed to assisting Chinese entities in commercializing battery technologies related to confidential research domains at Hydro-Québec.

Among those expected to testify during the four-week trial is a U.S. expert on the Chinese programs and policies.

On Thursday, Annie Roy, a Montreal police officer assigned to the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams, began testifying to introduce the documents into court.

The RCMP interviewed several current and former Hydro-Québec employees to understand the nature of certain documents and evaluate their level of confidentiality.

Earlier Thursday, Marcoux rejected a bid by the province’s hydro utility to pre-emptively redact some information at the trial, which ate up four days of trial time.

Hydro-Québec’s lawyers had asked Marcoux to impose orders to protect the confidentiality of sensitive information about its partners and its projects.

But in a lengthy oral ruling, Marcoux found the utility had failed to establish that the publication of the information in question would pose a serious and real risk for a commercial interest.

“Hydro-Québec is primarily seeking to prevent its partners from being involved in the accused’s criminal trial,” Marcoux said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2025.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press