An ex-Raytheon engineer has been sentenced to prison for taking technical information to China.

Wei Sun, 49, a Chinese national and naturalised US citizen, is an electrical engineer who previously worked for Raytheon Missile and Defense.

Mr Sun has been sentenced to 38 months in prison after pleading guilty to violating US export control law.

The US Justice Department says that Mr Sun had access to defence technology information, the export of which is prohibited under American and international arms export laws.

Between December 2018 and January 2019, while on a personal trip to China, Mr Sun was found to have brought along unclassified technical information in a company-issued computer.

The data included material on a missile guidance system covered by US export controls.

Mr Sun knowingly transported the data to China without an export license, prosecutors said, in violation of US laws.

Mr Sun pleaded guilty after being arrested en route to Tucson Airport for a flight connection to China. He later admitted this trip was to enrol in a Chinese university.