Espionage trial: Hydro-Québec says it learned of unauthorized publications in 2022

MONTREAL — A former researcher at Quebec’s electric utility charged with economic espionage for the benefit of China set off an internal probe after the publication of an academic paper in March 2022 that included his name, a witness told his trial Wednesday.

Patrick Phan, head of strategic projects and partnerships at the Hydro-Québec research institute, testified a colleague showed him an unauthorized publication that included Yuesheng Wang’s name and asked if the utility’s intellectual property committee was aware.

“This publication hadn’t gone through the committee or received committee approval,” Phan said Wednesday.

The discovery triggered an internal probe and that would result in Wang, 38, ending up on trial this year on several charges, notably as the first person to be charged with economic espionage under Canada’s Security of Information Act.

Wang was fired in 2022 from the Center of Excellence in Transportation Electrification and Energy Storage, known as CETEES, a research institute at Hydro-Québec located in Varennes, Que., that looks into advanced battery technologies and energy storage systems.

Wang is also charged under the Criminal Code with fraudulently using a computer, breach of trust, committing preparatory acts on behalf of a foreign entity and informing that entity — the People’s Republic of China — of his intentions.

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

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 as part of its technology acquisition policy.

Wang allegedly committed to assisting Chinese entities in commercializing battery technologies related to confidential research domains at Hydro-Québec.

Phan told the trial that further searches uncovered several other unauthorized publications with Wang’s name on them. The witness noted that some publications listed only Wang’s name, while others included his associations with Hydro-Québec and other researchers employed by the research facility.

The matter was quickly escalated to corporate security at the utility and ultimately ended up in the hands of the RCMP in August 2022 and the federal Crown, which laid charges that November. Phan said he did not personally ask Wang for explanations regarding the problematic publication.

The court also heard Wednesday that Wang had not made his collaborations with Chinese institutions a secret, having provided a list when seeking a reclassification of his job in 2019. That list of publications and patents led a manager to warn him he could not publish with external institutions without informing Hydro-Québec.

Phan said Wang wasn’t aware of any issues but committed to making sure it would not happen again.

The research institute is one of two operated by the utility. The facility in Varennes engages in so-called open innovation, which allows for publications. A second facility located in Shawinigan, Que., is dedicated to closed innovation, where developments are too sensitive to be published.

“There are projects deemed as sensitive at both (centres), given that intellectual property is being developed for commercialization in both places,” Phan said. Phan noted that since publication can lead to issues preventing future patenting, all publications must go through a two-phase approval process.

Earlier Wednesday, Karim Zaghib, a retired Hydro-Québec official who founded CETEES, described how Wang came to Quebec. Wang had said he met Zaghib in March 2015 while he was giving a conference in China. While Zaghib didn’t remember the encounter, Wang ended up in Quebec a year later.

Wang’s interest in sodium-ion batteries caught Zaghib’s attention as it was viewed as a necessary, long-term strategic focus at the facility.

In terms of security, Zaghib said using personal email addresses for sensitive information, especially publications, was prohibited. But when Wang was first hired in 2016, he noted the facility was in a transition phase, and the rule was not strictly enforced for non-sensitive communications.

Zaghib also noted that using USB keys had been forbidden for security reasons around 2018 or 2019. Among the items Wang returned upon his dismissal was a key that included 518 documents that had been deleted and two retained by the RCMP as part of the Crown’s case.

While Wang had strong academic potential due to his expertise in theory and fundamental research, Zaghib said the accused had not talked about applying for other work. Zaghib, now a chemical and materials engineering professor at Concordia University, said Wang was an excellent researcher.

The case is being heard by Quebec court Judge Jean-Philippe Marcoux at the Longueuil courthouse.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2025.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press