US jails two Chinese men for recruiting American military personnel for spying
According to Wionews, two Chinese men who pleaded guilty to attempting to entice and recruit U.S. military personnel to spy for China were sentenced by a court in California yesterday, Friday, October 30. The defendants, Liren Lai and Yuance Chen, were each sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release after admitting that they had acted under instructions from China’s Ministry of State Security.
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According to Wionews, two Chinese men who pleaded guilty to attempting to entice and recruit U.S. military personnel to spy for China were sentenced by a court in California yesterday, Friday, October 30. The defendants, Liren Lai and Yuance Chen, were each sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release after admitting that they had acted under instructions from China’s Ministry of State Security.
The U.S. Department of Justice said the two men had conducted clandestine operations in the United States, including arranging cash payments in exchange for information related to U.S. national security. They also gathered secret information about U.S. military personnel and installations and attempted to recruit intelligence assets from within the U.S. military.
Lai, who entered the United States on a tourist visa, recruited Chen, a permanent resident, into the espionage scheme. Lai initially served as an intermediary between Chen and Chinese intelligence officers, before Chen began receiving instructions directly.
The U.S. Department of Justice added that the men had been working for the Chinese government agency responsible for clandestine operations since May 2021.
They were arrested in June 2025 and pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to act as agents of a foreign government. By: Rithy
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