Embarrassing and repeated U.S. cybersecurity failures have allowed spies directed by China to steal massive quantities of top secret data almost with impunity, and have severely damaged United States national security interests in a key strategic area: stealth technology.

Since 2007, spies working for China have stolen secret data -- especially about stealth technologies -- used in the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor; the Northrop Grumman F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth strategic bomber.

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Last May, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a report on military and security developments that said China is using extensive cyber and human espionage to acquire U.S. and foreign military technology.

China's successful cyber intelligence and human intelligence operations that filched data about U.S. stealth aircraft led to the development of the F-35 look alike, the Shenyang J-31 stealth fighter (to be exported as a rival to the F-35). It's now being used to manufacture China's first strategic stealth bomber, the Xian H-20, which should become operational by 2025.

Secrets about the B-2 were handed to China by an Indian-American, Noshir Gowadia, who worked for Northrop Grumman. Classified information stolen by Gowadia is apparently helping China make progress in building the H-20.

Gowadia was sentenced to 32 years in prison in 2011 for selling U.S. aerospace secrets to China.

China's success in developing the J-31 and its other stealth fighter, the Chengdu J-20, can also be attributed to the successful spying of Su Bin, who was indicted this January and sentenced to five years in prison for his role as ringleader in a hacking operation that grabbed F-35 and the F-22 secrets.

The U.S. government said the operation also involved two officers form the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Su admitted to U.S. prosecutors their spy operation over the course of a year had made "important contributions to our (China's) national defense scientific research development."

He boasted the stolen information on the F-22 fighter jet will let China "rapidly catch up with US levels" and "stand easily on the giant's shoulders."

Wenxia Man, a naturalized Chinese-American born in China, was sentenced to 50 months in prison last August for "conspiring to export and cause the export of fighter jet engines, an unmanned aerial vehicle -- commonly known as a drone -- and related technical data to ... China."

The U.S. Department of Justice said the 45 year-old Man of San Diego, California was convicted on June 9 for attempting to steal jet engines that power the F-22 and the F-35, as well as the F-16 Flying Falcon jet fighters and the MQ-9 Reaper/Predator B Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.

DOJ prosecutors said evidence showed that between March 2011 and June 2013, Wenxia conspired with a contactor named Zhang Xinsheng to send the equipment to China. She described Zhang as a "technology spy" that worked on behalf of the PLA.

Tagschina, chinese spies, Noshir Gowadia, Su Bin, Wenxia Man, F-35, F-22, B-2 stealth bomber, People's Liberation Army