AP
—
A former US Navy sailor convicted of selling technical and working manuals for ships and working programs to an intelligence officer working for China was sentenced Monday to greater than 16 years in jail, prosecutors mentioned.
A federal choose in San Diego sentenced Jinchao Wei, 25, to 200 months. A federal jury convicted Wei in August of six crimes, together with espionage. He was paid greater than $12,000 for the information he offered, the US Department of Justice mentioned in an announcement.
Wei, an engineer for the amphibious assault ship USS Essex, was certainly one of two California-based sailors charged on August 3, 2023, with offering delicate navy information to China. The different, Wenheng Zhao, was sentenced to greater than two years in 2024 after he pleaded responsible to one rely of conspiracy and one rely of receiving a bribe in violation of his official duties.
US officers have for years expressed concern about the espionage risk they are saying the Chinese authorities poses, bringing legal instances in latest years towards Beijing intelligence operatives who’ve stolen delicate authorities and business information, together with via unlawful hacking.
Wei was recruited through social media in 2022 by an intelligence officer who portrayed himself as a naval fanatic working for the state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, prosecutors mentioned.
Evidence offered in court docket confirmed Wei informed a buddy that the individual was “extremely suspicious” and that it was “quite obviously” espionage. Wei disregarded the buddy’s recommendation to delete the contact and as an alternative moved conversations with the intelligence officer to a special encrypted messaging app Wei believed was safer, prosecutors mentioned.
Over the course of 18 months, Wei despatched the officer images and movies of the Essex, suggested him of the placement of assorted Navy ships and informed him about the Essex’s defensive weapons, prosecutors mentioned.
Wei offered the intelligence officer 60 technical and working manuals, together with these for weapons management, plane and deck elevators. The manuals contained export management warnings and detailed the operations of a number of programs aboard the Essex and comparable ships.
He was a petty officer second class, which is a enlisted sailor’s rank.
The Navy’s web site says the Essex is provided to transport and assist a Marine Corps touchdown pressure of over 2,000 troops throughout an air and amphibious assault.
In a letter to the choose earlier than sentencing, Wei apologized and mentioned he shouldn’t have shared something with the one that he had thought of a buddy. Wei mentioned “introversion and loneliness” clouded his judgment.