A service member in the U.S. Navy was sentenced this week to 27 months in prison and fined $5,500 for taking bribes and transmitting sensitive military information to an intelligence officer from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The court named the sentenced as Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao of Monterey Park, Calif. He pleaded guilty in October 2023 to one count of conspiring with an intelligence officer and one count of receiving a bribe. Zhao worked at Naval Base Ventura County in California and used his security clearance to collect and transmit sensitive U.S. military information to the foreign intelligence officer. As a result of his crime, he was also removed from the military.
“Mr. Zhao betrayed his solemn oath to defend his country and endangered those who serve in the U.S. military,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said. “Today, he is being held to account for those crimes. The Justice Department is committed to combatting the Chinese government’s efforts to undermine our nation’s security and holding accountable those who violate our laws as part of those efforts.”
According to the Department of Justice, Zhao transmitted plans for a large-scale maritime training exercise in the Pacific, as well as operational orders and electrical diagrams and blueprints for a Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar system located in Okinawa, Japan. He made use of encrypted communication methods to transmit the information and destroyed evidence to hide his involvement, after entering restricted military and naval installations to collect and record this information.
For this, Zhao was paid at least $14,866 in bribes.
“Make no mistake, the PRC is engaged in an aggressive effort to undermine the national security of the U.S. and its partners,” Larissa Knapp, executive assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) National Security Branch, said. “Zhao chose to betray the oath he took to our country and put others at risk by providing sensitive U.S. information to a PRC intelligence official. The Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly shown it will freely break any law or norm to achieve a perceived intelligence advantage. Today’s sentencing demonstrates, yet again, the inability of China’s Intelligence Services to prevent the FBI and our vital partners from apprehending and prosecuting the spies China recruits.”
The FBI conducted the investigation that led to Zhao’s sentencing alongside Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), with assistance from the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation division.