US jails two Chinese nationals for spying
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Two Chinese nationals have been jailed in the United States after admitting to trying to recruit US military service members to spy for Beijing.
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Liren “Ryan” Lai, 40, and Yuance Chen, 39, were each sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement on Friday.
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The men sought to arrange “dead drop” cash payments in exchange for information related to US national security, the statement also said.
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The pair operated a “long-running”, “extensive” and “brazen” scheme to undermine US national security and support Chinese intelligence operations and recruitment in the US, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A Eisenberg said.
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According to court documents, Lai and Chen began acting as agents of China’s foreign intelligence arm, the Ministry of State Security, no later than May 2021.
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Lai, who arrived in the US on a tourist visa, recruited Chen, a permanent resident, into the scheme and initially served as an intermediary between Chen and intelligence officers – until Chen was able to receive his orders directly from his handler.
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In May 2022, they facilitated a secret cash payment of $10,000 from China, ordering US-based individuals to drop the cash at a specified location for collection by someone else, an arrangement known as a “dead drop”.
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The two later carried out another similar operation, facilitating a payment of $20,000.
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Chen and Lai also engaged in other forms of espionage, including obtaining photographs of a naval facility, military recruits, and active-duty sailors. Chen collected personal information about a US Navy employee and maintained detailed biographical information about military personnel who were potential intelligence targets.
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The DOJ did not say how many times the pair had facilitated payments, nor how many people they had successfully recruited in the US.
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The men were found guilty of two charges: conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government without prior notification to the Attorney General; and acting as agents of a foreign government without prior notification.
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The pair were arrested and charged in June 2025.
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In late August, US President Donald Trump said he knew China spied on the US, but “we spy on them too”.
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In June, China announced that it had arrested a US citizen accused of espionage a day after US media reports said a scholar holding dual US and Myanmar citizenship was detained in early June.
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The scholar, Min Zin, previously wrote opinion pieces on Myanmar politics that were critical of the military government, as well as the opposition groups it is fighting.
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