Two Chinese agents jailed in US military case
Washington, Oct 31 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) Two Chinese nationals who carried out covert intelligence work targeting US military personnel have each been sentenced to 30 months in prison, the Justice Department said.
Liren “Ryan” Lai, 40, and Yuance Chen, 39, also received three years of supervised release for conspiring to act, and acting, as agents of China’s government without notifying the US attorney general.
The department on Friday said that the men operated under the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security. Their activities included arranging secret cash payments, gathering information about military installations and personnel, and helping efforts to recruit intelligence sources within the US military.
“Liren Lai and Yuance Chen operated in a long-running scheme to undermine U.S. national security by supporting Chinese intelligence operations and recruiting in the United States,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said.
The sentences followed guilty pleas by both defendants. Lai admitted both offences on December 12, 2025, while Chen pleaded guilty on February 20.
According to court documents cited by the department, the two began acting as agents of the Chinese intelligence service no later than May 2021. Lai recruited Chen and initially acted as an intermediary between him and Chinese intelligence officers.
Chen later received assignments directly from those officers, the department said.
The government’s sentencing memorandum detailed a clandestine payment of approximately $10,000 in January 2022. While in China, the defendants coordinated with people in the United States to leave a backpack containing the money in a locker at a recreational facility in Livermore, California.
The department described the arrangement as a “dead drop”, allowing money or information to change hands without the participants meeting directly.
Beginning in 2022, Chen gathered information about US military installations and personnel at the direction of Lai and Chinese intelligence officers, according to the department.
That work included obtaining photographs of Navy Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington, and photographs and videos of military recruits and active-duty sailors inside a Navy recruiting station in Southern California.
Chen also collected identifying information about a Navy employee and maintained detailed biographical information about military personnel considered potential intelligence targets, the department said.
In March 2023, Lai travelled to the United States and delivered a mobile phone to Chen for covert communications with the Chinese intelligence service.
Chen subsequently travelled to China in 2024 and 2025, meeting intelligence officers and receiving further assignments concerning US service members, the department said.
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