A US Navy sailor who pleaded guilty to spying on behalf of China has been sentenced to 27 months in prison, according to a report on Monday. press release From the United States Department of Justice.
Blaze News previously reported that Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, was stationed at the Ventura County Naval Base in Port Hueneme, California, when he received Chinese information in exchange for U.S. military secrets. He allegedly began accepting bribes from officers. Between August 2021 and May 2023, Mr. Zhao received $14,866 from the foreign employee.
Zhao, a Chinese-born naturalized U.S. citizen, used U.S. security clearance to provide nonpublic information about operational security, military training, and critical infrastructure to Chinese intelligence officers, the Justice Department reported.
“Mr. Zhao entered a restricted Army and Navy facility to collect and record this information,” authorities said. “Zhao transmitted plans, operational orders, and electrical diagrams and blueprints for a ground/air mission-oriented radar system located in Okinawa, Japan, for large-scale naval exercises in the Pacific Theater.”
According to the Justice Department, Mr. Zhao “used highly encrypted communication methods” to communicate with foreign agents and “destroyed evidence” to conceal their relationship.
Zhao pleaded guilty in October to one count of colluding with a secret agent and one count of accepting bribes, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, Blaze News previously reported.
According to the New York Post, Chao's lawyer, Tarek Shawky, asked for a 12-month sentence for his client, while the Justice Department asked for a 37-month sentence.
shorkey said court news service,”[Zhao’s] I'm ready to take responsibility for what he did.”
“He trusted people he shouldn't have trusted and made bad decisions,” he added.
On Monday, Mr. Zhao was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay a $5,500 fine.
“Mr. Zhao betrayed his solemn oath to protect our country and endangered those who serve in the U.S. military,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division.
“Today, he is being held accountable for those crimes. The Department of Justice is committed to combating the Chinese government's efforts to undermine our nation's security, and as part of that effort, to holding accountable those who violate our laws. We're doing our best,” Olsen said.
FBI National Security Director Larissa L. Knapp warned that the People's Republic of China is “engaging in active efforts to undermine the national security of the United States and its partners.”
“The Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly demonstrated that it is free to break any law or norm to gain an intelligence advantage,” Knapp said.
In August, Department of Justice reports In a separate incident, another US Navy sailor, Jingchao Wei, was arrested on suspicion of espionage. While stationed at Naval Base San Diego as a machinist colleague on the USS Essex, Wei is alleged to have provided Chinese intelligence with confidential information about the ship's weapons, propulsion and desalination systems. Wei has since pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to reports. san diego era.
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