Two UNITED STATE Navy seafarers have actually been apprehended on fees of turning over delicate nationwide protection product to China, united state authorities claimed Thursday.
Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, was billed with conspiracy theory and also bribetaking about taking virtually $15,000 for pictures and also video clips of delicate united state army info, the authorities claimed. UNITED STATE Navy seafarer, Jinchao Wei, whose age was not revealed, was billed with conspiring to send out nationwide protection info to China for hundreds of bucks.
Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen informed press reporters in San Diego that, as a result of the guys’s activities, “sensitive military info ended up in the hands of the People’s Republic of China.”
Zhao is implicated of sending his Chinese trainer prepares for united state army workouts in the Indo-Pacific area, electric layouts and also plans for a radar system on a united state army base in Okinawa, Japan and also protection information for united state marine centers in Ventura County and also San Clemente Island outdoors Los Angeles, according to united state authorities.
Wei is implicated of divulging info regarding the USS Essex, an aquatic attack ship where he offered, along with various other American battleships, consisting of lots of technological handbooks setting out the Essex’s tools, class structure and also procedures.
Contact information for Wei and also Zhao might not instantly lie.
united state authorities at journalism seminar condemned China’s reconnaissance project Thursday.
“There is no bigger, multigenerational threat to the United States” than China, claimed FBISpecial Agent Stacey Moy Beijing”will stop at nothing to attack the United States in its strategic plan to become the world’s sole superpower.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not instantly return a message looking for discuss the accusations.
UNITED STATE-China connections have actually been stressful for several years over a series of nationwide protection and also profession problems. The United States has actually implicated China of reconnaissance and also cyberattacks, a cost that Beijing has actually denied. China has actually likewise proclaimed that it is under hazard from spies.
(Reuters – Reporting by Kanishka Singh and also Raphael Satter; Editing by Mark Porter, Alison Williams, Jonathan Oatis and also Cynthia Osterman)
