Justice Department officials have detailed two separate cases in which Navy personnel have been charged with espionage and bribery, respectively.
According to the Justice Department, Navy sailor Jinchao Wei, aka Patrick Wei, was recently arrested on espionage charges as he arrived for work at Naval Base San Diego, the homeport of the Pacific Fleet and indicted for alleged conspiracy to send national defense information to an intelligence officer working for the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The Justice Department indicated the indictment alleges Wei was an active-duty sailor on the amphibious assault ship the U.S.S. Essex stationed at Naval Base San Diego and in his role as a machinist’s mate held a U.S. security clearance with access to sensitive national defense information about the ship’s weapons, propulsion and desalination systems.
According to the indictment, the Justice Department noted, in February 2022, Wei began communicating with an intelligence officer from the PRC who requested that Wei provide information about the U.S.S. Essex and other Navy ships.
At the request of the intelligence officer, according to the Justice Department, between March 2022 and the present, Wei sent photographs and videos of the Essex, disclosed the locations of various Navy ships and described defensive weapons of the Essex.
In exchange for the information, the intelligence officer paid Wei thousands of dollars over the course of the conspiracy and the indictment further alleges that in June 2022, Wei sent the intelligence officer approximately 30 technical and mechanical manuals, according to the Justice Department.
The indictment alleges Wei knowingly violated the International Traffic in Arms Regulations by transmitting the manuals to the Chinese intelligence officer without obtaining a required license.
Additionally, the Justice Department noted in United States v. Wenheng Zhao Navy servicemember Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, aka Thomas Zhao, 26, of Monterey Park, California, was arrested following an indictment by a federal grand jury, charging him with receiving bribes in exchange for transmitting sensitive U.S. military information to an individual posing as a maritime economic researcher, but who was actually an intelligence officer from the PRC.
According to the Justice Department, the indictment alleges that Zhao, who worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme and held a security clearance, received bribes from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for violating his official duties as a U.S. sailor by, among other actions, disclosing non-public sensitive U.S. military information.
The Justice Department alleges beginning in August 2021 and continuing through at least May 2023, at the Chinese intelligence officer’s direction, Zhao allegedly violated his official duties to protect sensitive military information by surreptitiously recording, and then transmitting to the intelligence officer, U.S. military information, photographs and videos.
In exchange for bribes, per the Justice Department, Zhao allegedly sent the Chinese military officer non-public and controlled operational plans for a large-scale U.S. military exercise in the Indo-Pacific Region, which detailed the specific location and timing of Naval force movements, amphibious landings, maritime operations and logistics support.
“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,” Justice Department National Security Division Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said. “The Department of Justice will continue to use every tool in our arsenal to counter threats from China and to deter those who aid them in breaking our laws and threatening our national security.”