Spies on the Seas

Two United States Navy sailors have been arrested on charges of providing sensitive information to the communist Chinese government.

On Thursday, August 3, reports indicated two Navy sailors had been arrested under espionage charges and handing over Naval military intelligence to China. The first man, Jinchao Wei, served aboard the USS Essex, and the second, Wenheng Zhao, was serving in Port Hueneme at Naval Base Ventura County when FBI and NCIS agents arrested him.

According to an article from ABC News, Zhao’s “indictment states he had access to material classified as secret, as did Wei, who was born in China and became a U.S. citizen in 2022 as he was allegedly also sending information to his handler.”

Similar to Zhao, Wei, being a machinist’s mate, had access to sensitive Naval information about the USS Essex’s “weapons, propulsion and desalination systems,” according to the Department of Justice.

Additionally, the Department of Justice also provided information on the workings of Wei and his reports back to a Chinese government intelligence agent from Wei’s indictment allegations: 

“Wei began communicating with an intelligence officer from the People’s Republic of China who requested that Wei provide information about the U.S.S. Essex and other Navy ships. Specifically, the Chinese officer tasked Wei with passing him photos, videos, and documents concerning U.S. Navy ships and their systems. The two agreed to hide their communications by deleting records of their conversations and using encrypted methods of communication.”

Wei’s indictment alleges the accused exchanged all this information for thousands of dollars, which would be provided by the Chinese government. 

According to the Associated Press, when asked about the Navy sailors’ betrayal, Matt Olsen, the Department of Justice’s assistant attorney general for national security, gave his comments: “Through the alleged crimes committed by these defendants, sensitive military information ended up in the hands of the People’s Republic of China.” 

Olsen continued by commenting on how these charged Navy sailors only put further light on communist China’s “determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defense by any means, so it could be used to their advantage,” as mentioned in the Associated Press.

If any doubts were held by the American people or the Biden administration of China’s toxic and relentless hyper-aggression towards the United States, Jinchao Wei and Wenheng Zhao should serve as stark wake-up calls to the threat of Chinese government infiltration within the United States.

This is not the first time Chinese intelligence has been caught within the United States. From the purchase of hundreds of acres of farmland around military bases, the infiltration of American institutions of higher education and most famously, the Chinese spy balloon incident, the threat of Chinese espionage is at its most relentless advance in decades. 

Many Americans are looking to Congress and President Biden for counter-espionage actions, which only seem to be coming out of Washington slowly rather than urgently.

Americans can only hope the ever-growing boldness of the Chinese Communist Party will be curtailed by President Biden and the federal government soon. If Chinese operatives are already infiltrating the military, there is no telling how many more may be undercover within the Armed Forces and the rest of the United States.

Read the entire Department of Justice report on both servicemen’s arrests here.
Read the entire Department of Justice report on Jinchao Wei’s arrest and charge here.