Navy Sailors Charged With Allegedly Spying for China

Two U.S. Navy sailors were arrested on charges that they provided military intelligence to China, including details of U.S. naval ships’ operating systems and information about upcoming military exercises in the Pacific, officials said on Thursday.

In both instances, according to unsealed federal indictments, a Chinese intelligence officer allegedly approached the junior sailors, suggesting that China is reaching deep within the military ranks in search of information about the Pentagon’s effort to counter perceived threats from Beijing in the Asia-Pacific region. 

China “stands apart in terms of the threat that its government poses to the United States,’’ Randy Grossman, a U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California, said during a news conference Thursday. “China is unrivaled in its audacity and the range of its malign efforts to subvert our laws.”

While both sailors’ indictments were unsealed on Thursday, a day after they were arrested in California, the amount and type of information they are accused of providing was different, according to the charging documents.

Jinchao “Patrick” Wei, a 22-year-old petty officer second class, served as a machinist’s mate on the amphibious ship USS Essex. He faces four charges, including one that falls under the rarely used Espionage Act. Prosecutors allege that he was part of a conspiracy to send national defense information to Chinese officials.

The USS Essex is under maintenance at Naval Base San Diego, where Wei was arrested as he arrived to work, officials said. He has served in the Navy since July 2021, according to his public service record, and agreed to work with an unnamed Chinese intelligence officer less than a year after joining the Navy, according to the indictment. He continued spying for a year, prosecutors alleged. 

Non-U.S. citizens can join the military if they are legally eligible to work, live in the U.S. and speak English. Wei, who was born in China, allegedly agreed to spy while he was applying to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, prosecutors said. When he became a U.S. citizen in May 2022, his Chinese handler congratulated him, prosecutors said. Wei told his handler that he knew what he was doing would be considered spying, prosecutors said, but accepted several thousands of dollars in payments. 

The second indictment charges a 26-year-old sailor, Wenheng “Thomas” Zhao, with allegedly sending photographs, videos and documents to an unnamed Chinese intelligence officer over a two-year period in exchange for just under $15,000. He is charged with conspiracy and receiving a bribe.

Zhao, who has been in the Navy since 2017, is a petty officer second class who worked as an electrician and held a secret clearance while he was based in a naval base in Ventura County, Calif. Among the information he allegedly sent were blueprints for a radar system operating on a U.S. military base in Okinawa, Japan. 

In Zhao’s case, many of the documents were classified CUI, or controlled unclassified information, or sensitive but not releasable, according to the charging document. In some instances, the military agrees to release documents classified as CUI, including Zhao and Wei’s service records. 

It is unclear whether the same unnamed Chinese intelligence officer approached the sailors, but in both instances the operative allegedly told Wei and Zhao to destroy evidence to help them cover their tracks, officials said.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington, said that although China wasn’t aware of the details of the cases, “the U.S. government and media have frequently hyped up cases of ‘espionage’ related to China.’’

He added, “China firmly opposes the U.S. side’s groundless slander and smear of China.”

The Navy referred questions about the cases to the Justice Department, saying in a statement: “We take allegations of misconduct seriously, and the Navy is cooperating with the Justice Department.”

Neither Wei nor Zhao could be reached for comment and it wasn’t immediately clear whether they had legal representation. 

The charges against the two men were the latest in a spate of cases in recent years in which U.S. government defense and intelligence officials have been accused of spying on behalf of China.

Last year, Shapour Moinian, a former Army helicopter pilot and defense contractor, was sentenced to 20 months in prison in a plea deal for providing aviation-related information to his Chinese handlers.

Among the most damaging cases, officials have said, is that of Kevin Mallory, a former CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency officer sentenced in 2019 to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to transmit national defense information to China. Former officials have said the secrets Mallory transmitted may have helped Beijing uncover Chinese agents working for the United States.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said last year that the Bureau had more than 2,000 investigations involving Chinese attempts to steal U.S. technology, and that two such new cases are opened every day.

A U.S. official said the majority of such cases involve American corporations. There are “a lot in the private sector, and continues to be a steady drip on the government side,” he said.

Write to Nancy A. Youssef at [email protected] and Warren P. Strobel at [email protected]