A man from California has been arrested and charged with spying for China as part of an extensive espionage operation.

Officials said that Edward Peng, 56, also known as Xuehua Peng, had been taken into custody and charged with acting as a courier to provide classified information to the authorities in Beijing.

While he himself did not obtain the information, he passed it on via a system of “dead letter drops” in hotel rooms across the country, prosecutors said.

It said that he dropped off money and picked up secure digital cards, that he then transported to China in person.

“The conduct charged in this case alleges a combination of age-old spycraft and modern technology,” US attorney David Anderson said on Monday.

Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Show all 20 1 /20 Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China An employee enters a train in the Huawei's Ox Horn campus at Songshan Lake in Dongguan Reuters Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China A worker cleans a waterway as office buildings are seen at Huawei's new Ox Horn Research and Development campus in Dongguan, near shenzen Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China An area of Huawei's Ox Horn campus modelled after Cesky Krumlov in Czech Republic Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China The real Cesky Krumlov in Czech Republic Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Employees sleep in their cubicle in the research and development area after lunch at the Bantian campus in Shenzhen Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China An area of Huawei's Ox Horn campus modelled after Heidelberg in Germany Getty Images Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Employees play basketball on a court within the staff housing complex at the end of the workday at the Bantian campus in Shenzhen Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China A replica of the Karl Theodor Bridge in Huawei's Ox Horn campus Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China The real Karl Theodor Bridge in Heidelberg, Germany Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Huawei's Ox Horn campus at Songshan Lake in Dongguan Reuters Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Employees ride the bus home at the end of the workday from the company's Bantian campus in Shenzhen Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Huawei workers eat their subsidised lunch in one of many large cafeterias at the company's Bantian campus in Shenzhen Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Reception staff walk in front of a large screen showcasing different technologies in the foyer of a building used for high profile customer visits at the campus in Shenzen Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China An employee reads in the staff library on a break at the company's Bantian campus in Shenzhen Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China An area of Huawei's new Ox Horn campus modelled after a European City Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Servers are seen inside Huawei's factory campus in Dongguan Reuters Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China The conductor waits for a train in the Huawei's Ox Horn campus at Songshan Lake in Dongguan Reuters Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China A general view shows the research and development centre at Huawei's Ox Horn campus AFP/Getty Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China Employees works on a mobile phone production line at Huawei's factory campus in Dongguan Reuters Inside Huawei's new campus for workers in China An office building on the Huawei campus in Dongguan AFP/Getty

“The charges announced today provide a rare glimpse into the secret efforts of the People’s Republic of China to obtain classified national security information from the United States.”

The revelation of Mr Peng’s arrest comes amid a tense relationship between the two countries as both sides dig in over a trade war.

Donald Trump had long accused China of unfair trading practices and intellectual property theft. So far, the US president has imposed tariffs on more than $360bn of Chinese imports and is set to raise the taxes on most of them next month. He plans to tax an additional $160bn with of Chinese goods by mid December. Beijing has retaliated by taxing $120bn of US imports.

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Reports said Mr Peng was detained last Friday in Hayward, California, and was denied bail during an initial court appearance before a judge the same day. It is not known whether he has a lawyer or has had the opportunity to enter a plea.

Reports said Mr Peng, who works as a tour and sight-seeing operator for Chinese tourists in the Bay Area, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

NBC News said Mr Peng, said to be a member of China’s ministry of state security, was arrested after the FBI launched a “double agent operation” in March 2015, according to a criminal complaint filed in court.

It said that as part of the investigation, a confidential FBI source met with MSS intelligence officers, provided them with classified information relating to national security concerns, and received financial payments in return.

It claimed that on six different dates, Mr Peng showed up to collect packages left at hotels in California and Georgia.