Federal prosecutors allege Chinese military officials hacked into SolarWorldcomputers at least a dozen times in 2012, stealing thousands of emails and documents from top Hillsboro executives leading a U.S. trade fight against Asian solar-panel competitors.  

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the cyberspying charges Monday against five Chinese officials. An indictment alleges the spies targeted SolarWorld and four other U.S. corporations, as well as a union, all with business ties to China.

According to the indictment, defendant Wen Xinyu -- using online avatars such as "WinXYHappy" and "Win_XY" -- first accessed SolarWorld's computer files in May 2012. The U.S. Department of Commerce had just issued a preliminary finding in support of SolarWorld. The company and others had argued that Chinese competitors were dumping below-cost solar panels into the U.S. market, making it nearly impossible to compete. 

The spying allegedly continued through September 2012. "Collectively, the data stolen from SolarWorld would have enabled a Chinese competitor to target SolarWorld's business operations aggressively from a variety of angles," the indictment alleges.

SolarWorld spokesman Ben Santarris said the company was stunned at the news. It has long argued the Chinese government was using sharp-elbow tactics in the hotly contested solar market. But the company didn't know its own computers had been hacked by the Chinese until it was informed by the FBI.

"We've been fighting these trade wars for three years now in markets where Chinese practices have decimated local manufacturers," Santarris said. "Now, to learn that when we were waging that fight agents of the Chinese military were stealing all kinds of information from us, including our own legal arguments for the trade case... It's really astonishing and nefarious."

The stolen documents included:

• Cash-flow spreadsheets kept by SolarWorld's chief financial officer.

• Attorney-client information regarding the trade case, including confidential documents submitted to the Commerce Department.

• Production line information, that would have allowed competitors to copy SolarWorld's manufacturing process.

• Cost and pricing details.

Alcoa World Alumina, Westinghouse Electric Co., Allegheny Technologies, U.S. Steel Corp. and the United Steelworkers Union were the other victims listed in the indictment, returned earlier this month in the Western District Court of Pennsylvania. 

Federal officials said Wen Xinyu, and four co-defendants were officers in Unit 61398 of the Third Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). Each was  charged with 31 criminal counts, including espionage, trade secret theft and computer fraud.

SolarWorld expects rulings this summer from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission on its latest trade case. The company is urging federal trade authorities to close a loophole employed by the Chinese to avoid the 31 percent tariff on imported Chinese panels.

SolarWorld successfully got the tariff imposed in its first trade case. But some Chinese operators have managed to avoid the tariff by staging one step of solar cell manufacturing in Taiwan, Santarris said.

"We have been making the cases that the Chinese have been seeking an unfair advantage in our marketplace and is therefore anti-competitive. This is another way it has been trying to snuff out competition."