Two U.S. Navy sailors have been arrested after allegedly spying and sending sensitive information to China in two separate incidents, according to federal prosecutors.
The first, Jinchao “Patrick” Wei, 22, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with espionage after he provided Chinese officials with detailed information regarding the USS Essex, the ship he had served on as a machinist’s mate which is based out of San Diego. He also gave detailed information about other ships and their crew members, according to a press release from the National Security Division of the Department of Justice.
Wenheng Zhao, 26, was arrested and is being accused of taking bribes in exchange for him sending “sensitive U.S. military information” to a Chinese intelligence officer who pretended to be a nautical economic researcher, according to the press release.
“These arrests are a reminder of the relentless, aggressive efforts of the People’s Republic of China to undermine our democracy and threaten those who defend it,” Suzanne Turner, the assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, said in the press release.
Two U.S. Navy Servicemembers Arrested for Transmitting Military Information to the People’s Republic of China https://t.co/wDgakEZEuk
— National Security Division, U.S. Dept of Justice (@DOJNatSec) August 3, 2023
According to the indictment regarding Wei, while serving as an active-duty sailor, he began talking with an intelligence officer from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in February 2022, according to the press release.
The officer from the PRC requested Wei send “photos, videos and documents” about U.S. Navy ships and their operating systems. Between March 2022 to present, Wei began sending this information, according to the press release.
Over the course of this time period, Wei sent the PRC officer around “30 technical and mechanical manuals” for various ships, the amount of U.S. Marines training for an “upcoming international maritime warfare exercise” and the training itself, along with the “overhaul and upgrades to the Essex.” In addition, he allegedly sent the blueprints and any “modifications to the flight deck.”
The indictment against Zhao claims that between August 2021 and at least through May 2023, he began “recording” and “transmitting” to a PRC officer information regarding “military information, photographs and videos,” according to the press release.
In exchange for bribes, Zhao allegedly sent the PRC officer “non-public and controlled operational plans” regarding a U.S. military exercise that was to be conducted in the Indo-Pacific Region, along with the locations and timings of U.S. Navy movements and maritime operations, according to the press release.
Zhao also additionally took photos of “electrical diagrams and blueprints” used for radar systems at the U.S. Naval base in Okinawa, Japan, in exchange for bribes, according to the press release.
The PRC officer paid Zhao roughly $14,866, according to the press release.
“These individuals stand accused of violating the commitments they made to protect the United States and betraying the public trust, to the benefit of the PRC government,” Matthew G. Olsen, the assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s National Security Division, said in the press release, vowing the DOJ would “use every tool” they had to “counter threats from China.”