US naval officer Wenheng Zhao pleaded guilty to passing sensitive information and plans to Chinese intelligence and was sentenced to 27 months in prison.
Zhao was a petty officer working at the Ventura County Naval Base in California.
According to the BBC, he handed over military information on operational instructions, electrical schematics and plans for a radar system to be installed at a US military base in Okinawa, Japan between 2021 and 2023.
In return, he accepted nearly $14,886 in bribes from August 2021 to May 2023, according to US government sources.
The US Navy’s Okinawa base is crucial to its operations in Asia. The US has made what it calls the “Indo-Pacific” region a key security priority and has worked to bolster alliances there in recent years to counter China’s vast military power.
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Zhao is a naturalized US citizen who was born in China. He immigrated to the US in 2009, became a citizen in 2012 and enlisted in the Navy 5 years later.
He was arrested in California last August and pleaded guilty to espionage charges in October.
The Chinese embassy in Washington denied the allegations on Monday, saying it was not aware of the details of Chao’s case. She further accused the US government and the media of mediating espionage cases, many of which she said were based on unproven allegations.
