US jails navy sailor for passing military data to China
Kyiv • UNN
A U.S. Navy serviceman was sentenced to 27 months in prison for accepting a bribe of nearly $15,000 from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for photos of U.S. military information.
A US court has jailed US Navy sailor Wenheng Zhao for two years and three months for passing confidential military information to China. This was reported by the BBC, according to UNN.
Details
Zhao is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China. He immigrated to the United States in 2009, became a citizen in 2012, and joined the military five years later.
Law enforcement officials accused Zhao of transmitting information about large-scale US Navy exercises in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as transferring electrical schematics and drawings of a radar system located at a US base on the Japanese island of Okinawa.
He used "sophisticated encrypted communication methods" to transmit information, destroyed evidence, and concealed his contacts with the Chinese spy.
Wenheng Zhao, 26, pleaded guilty to passing information to Chinese intelligence for bribes.
In total, between August 2021 and May 2023, he was paid at least 14 bribes totaling at least USD 14,866.
Last October, he pleaded guilty in court. He was facing 20 years in prison.
Recall
On October 23 last year, China's main spy agency reported the detention of a Chinese man who worked for the Ministry of Defense and spied for the United States.