WASHINGTON, US - A Chinese man has been arrested and charged with stealing trade secrets from automotive giant Ford Motor Co, including sensitive design documents, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.

Authorities on Wednesday arrested Xiang Dong Yu, a product engineer at Ford from 1997 to 2007, on charges he stole some documents, attempted to steal trade secrets and used them to try to get a job with a Chinese automotive company, the department said.

He was secretly indicted in July, according to court documents.