US Navy sailor jailed for passing military blueprints, plans to China

A US Navy sailor who admitted to providing sensitive military information to China has been jailed for more than two years.

Wenheng Zhao, 26, pleaded guilty in October to passing on information to Chinese intelligence for bribes.

Mr Zhao was a petty officer working at a California naval base.

He passed on information about military exercises, operational orders and critical infrastructure from 2021 to 2023, US officials said.

Specifically, he provided information about the US Navy's large-scale drills in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system located at the US base on the Japanese island of Okinawa.

The US Navy's base there in Okinawa is critical to its operations in Asia. The US has made what it calls the "Indo-Pacific" region a key security priority, and in recent years has worked on shoring up alliances there to counter China's ramped-up military presence.

In the past few years it has expanded the naval drills it operates with allies in the region. However, US authorities gave no indication that information about other countries' naval drills was compromised.

Zhao, who had security clearance and worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, had specifically entered restricted military and naval installations "to collect and record" information, the US Justice Department said.

He also used "sophisticated encrypted communication methods" to pass on the information, destroyed evidence and concealed his relationship with a Chinese spy.

He was paid at least 14 separate bribes between August 2021- May 2023, to a total of at least $14,866 (£11,650).

Zhao is a naturalised US citizen who was born in China. He immigrated to the US in 2009, became a citizen in 2012 and enlisted