In another infuriating case of China-aiding espionage out of the United States Armed Forces, an active duty sailor in the United States Navy was caught and convicted of espionage aiding China, as he apparently attempted to sell US Navy secrets to an intelligence officer working for the People’s Republic of China.
Such is what the Department of Justice for the Southern District of California announced in a press release on Wednesday, August 20, explaining that the San Diego-based sailor had conspired to sell the secrets for a few thousand dollars and will be sentenced in early December of this year.
Beginning, the DOJ statement named the guilty individual and briefly described what he did, saying “Jinchao Wei, who was an active-duty U.S. Navy sailor stationed at Naval Base San Diego when he agreed to sell Navy secrets to a Chinese intelligence officer for $12,000, was convicted by a federal jury today of espionage.”
Continuing, the statement described what crimes the sailor was allegedly guilty of, stating, “Following a five-day trial and one day of deliberation, the jury convicted Wei of six crimes, including conspiracy to commit espionage, espionage, and unlawful export of, and conspiracy to export, technical data related to defense articles in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. He was found not guilty of one count of naturalization fraud. Wei is scheduled to be sentenced on December 1 at 9 a.m.”
Later on, the statement gave more details on Wei’s case and arrest, describing his role and involvement with the PRC intelligence officer. He began, “Wei, 25, also known as Patrick Wei, was arrested in August 2023 on espionage charges as he arrived for work on the amphibious assault ship U.S.S. Essex at Naval Base San Diego, the homeport of the Pacific Fleet. He was indicted by a federal grand jury, accused of sending national defense information to an intelligence officer working for the People’s Republic of China.”
Continuing, the statement described what aspects of the ship’s system he had inside information on, a major problem given his attempts at espionage and the importance of the ships in a naval war. He said, “According to evidence presented at trial, Wei, in his role as a machinist’s mate, held a U.S. security clearance and had access to sensitive national defense information about the ship’s weapons, propulsion and desalination systems. Amphibious assault ships like the Essex resemble small aircraft carriers and allow the U.S. military to project power and maintain presence by serving as the cornerstone of the U.S. Navy’s amphibious readiness and expeditionary strike capabilities.”
Adding to that, the statement described how Wei was taken in by the PRC intelligence officer, and what the intelligence agent posed as doing. It provided, “On February 14, 2022, Wei was recruited by a Chinese intelligence officer via social media who at first portrayed himself as a naval enthusiast who worked for the state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation. The evidence showed that even during the early days of his espionage career, Wei strongly suspected the intelligence officer’s true identity and motive.”
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The statement went on to describe that Wei, despite understanding that the supposed naval enthusiast was an intelligence officer, went on to communicate further with him, even deciding to transition “his communications with the intelligence officer to a different encrypted messaging application that he believed was more secure and began spying for the intelligence officer.”
The DOJ forther noted that Wei was found to have “advised the officer of the location of various Navy ships, and described the defensive weapons of the Essex.” Further, he “described problems with his ship and other ships based at Naval Base San Diego and elsewhere. And, he sent the intelligence officer thousands of pages of technical and operational information about U.S. Navy surface warfare ships like the Essex that he took from restricted U.S. Navy computer systems.”
Wei was paid $12,000 fror the information he transferred, which included “30 technical and operating manuals about U.S. Navy systems.” Those manuals “detailed the operations of multiple systems aboard the Essex and similar ships, including power, steering, weapons control, aircraft and deck elevators, as well as damage and casualty controls”
Caught and convicted, Wei now faces severe penalties, including life in prison and $250,000 fines for the Conspiracy to Commit Espionage charges, $1 million fines and 20 years in prison for the Conspiracy to Export Defense Articles without a License crimes for which he was convicted, and the same fine and prison time for the Exporting Defense Articles without a License charge of which he was convicted.