Beijing has been increasing determination to battle spying as of late, including carrying out a changed enemy of reconnaissance regulation last month that gives specialists more power than any other time in recent memory to rebuff what they consider to be dangers to public safety.
"After careful examination, the state security authority got proof of Zeng's surveillance exercises and, as per the law, went to coercive lengths against him to wipe out the mischief promptly," Beijing's Service of State Security said in an explanation distributed on the web.
Subtleties on Zeng's discipline were not given.
The assertion said that 52-year-old Zeng had been shipped off Italy for studies, where he become friends with a CIA specialist positioned at the US consulate in Rome.
This individual persuaded Zeng to give "delicate data on the (Chinese) military" in return for "an enormous measure of remuneration" and help for Zeng and his family to move to the US.
Zeng purportedly marked an agreement with the US side and got preparing prior to getting back to China to lead the undercover work action.
The case immediately got far reaching consideration in China, taking off to the first spot on a list of moving subjects via virtual entertainment site Weibo on Friday morning.
Beijing's update of its enemy of secret activities regulation has scared numerous US organizations with tasks in China as relations between the nations proceed with their descending twisting.
Under the changes, "depending on surveillance associations and their representatives" as well as the unapproved getting of "reports, information, materials, and things connected with public safety and interests" can comprise a spying offense.
The changes "have raised genuine worries about directing specific routine business exercises, which currently risk being viewed as reconnaissance", Craig Allen, leader of the US-China Business Committee, wrote in a new blog.
"Trust in China's market will experience further in the event that the law is applied often and without an unmistakable, thin and guide connect to exercises generally perceived as undercover work," composed Allen.