SANTA ANA, Calif. - Prosecutors cast engineer Chi Mak as a secret foreign agent who used his position at a U.S. defense contractor to steal military secrets for China. Defense attorneys say Mak is a devoted American who would never harm his adopted country. Those two portrayals will be presented to a jury as Mak’s federal trial starts Tuesday.

Mak, a U.S. citizen since 1985, is charged with conspiracy to export U.S. defense secrets to China, possession of property in aid of a foreign government and failure to register as a foreign agent. He could get more than 50 years in prison if convicted.

As a top engineer at Power Paragon, an Anaheim-based subsidiary of the nation’s sixth-largest defense company, L-3 Communications, Mak helped develop some of the most advanced and closely guarded naval technology in the world, including silent-running propulsion systems that can make submarines virtually undetectable.

But prosecutors say Mak was also working for his native China from 1983 until his arrest two years ago, stealing hundreds of documents about a number of defense systems.

Mak, 66, allegedly took documents from Power Paragon, copied them to computer disks and encrypted them with the help of his brother, Tai Mak, and nephew, Billy Mak, before trying to pass them to a Chinese contact.

Tai Mak and his wife, Fuk Heung Li, were arrested in October 2005 at Los Angeles International Airport as they prepared to travel to Hong Kong and China.

Hidden in their luggage were encrypted disks containing copies of documents on a submarine propulsion system, according to court papers.

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