US authorities arrested a Chinese-born army reservist on Tuesday on claims that he helped China target employees at American defence contractors for recruitment to its intelligence service.

Ji Chaoqun, 27, was arrested in Chicago following an accusation that he had illegally acted as a foreign agent at the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security. The complaint filed in the district court in Chicago claimed he had prepared research on eight recruitment targets in the US for an unnamed “high level” Chinese intelligence officer.

Mr Ji, a Chinese citizen, arrived in the US in 2013 to study electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, received his masters in 2015 and later enlisted in the US Army Reserves, according to the complaint.