An enlisted sailor stationed on the San Diego-based amphibious assault ship Essex is one of two U.S. Navy sailors charged with conspiracy to spy for China, the Justice Department said Thursday.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Jinchao Wei is a machinist mate who checked onboard the Essex in March 2022, according to his Navy biography. According to his indictment, unsealed Thursday, Wei met a Chinese intelligence officer the month prior to his arrival on the Essex.
According to the indictment, he was spying his entire time on board the ship.
Through June 2023, Wei sent the Chinese official photos of Navy ships in San Diego and several technical manuals pertaining to U.S. amphibious ships, according to prosecutors. He also allegedly gave the official detailed accounts of the locations of various crew spaces on the Essex, including weapons systems and crew berthing quarters.
In February, according to prosecutors, Wei told the Chinese official about repairs being performed on the Essex and information about another unnamed San Diego amphibious assault ship with mechanical problems that would prevent it from deploying.
In exchange, Wei was paid thousands of dollars.
Federal agents arrested him Wednesday morning when he showed up for work on Naval Base San Diego, prosecutors said. The Essex is currently undergoing long-term maintenance and upgrades at a San Diego dry dock.
Randy Grossman, the U.S. Attorney for Southern District of California in San Diego, said the act of providing intelligence to China specifically about San Diego was "personal."
"San Diego indeed has a storied history with the United States Navy," Grossman said. "With more than 50 U.S. Navy ships based here, Naval Base San Diego is critically important to U.S. security. That's why this conduct is personal for San Diego — and we will not stand for it."
The second sailor arrested, Petty Officer 2nd Class Wenheng Zhao, is a construction electrician — a Navy Seabee — at Naval Base Ventura County.
Prosecutors say Zhao also sold information about Navy activities to Chinese intelligence — including the same agent they say was working with Wei. Other than that, prosecutors did not say whether Wei and Zhao were connected.
The connection, said Stacey Moy, the FBI special agent in charge in San Diego, is that China is constantly working to discover U.S. military secrets.
“The FBI is continuously monitoring threats from foreign intelligence adversaries directed our nation, and there is no bigger multigenerational threat to the United States than from the government of the People's Republic of China, the PRC," Moy said.
Grossman said the selling of secrets to foreign adversaries by active-duty service members represented an "ultimate" betrayal.
“When a soldier or sailor chooses cash over country and hands over national defense information in an ultimate act of betrayal, we have to be ready to act, and that's exactly what we have done here,” Grossman said.
Wei was charged with conspiracy to communicate, deliver or transmit defense information to aid a foreign government, an espionage charge that Grossman said had never been brought in San Diego.
Zhao was charged with conspiracy and receipt of a bribe, according to his indictment.
