A United States Navy sailor was sentenced to 27 months in prison on Monday for sharing sensitive military information with China.
Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, also known as Thomas Zhao, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring with an intelligence officer and one count of accepting a monetary bribe. Zhao had accepted nearly $15,000 in exchange for the sensitive material, according to the Justice Department.
“Mr. Zhao betrayed his solemn oath to defend his country and endangered those who serve in the U.S. military,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said in a statement. “The Justice Department is committed to combatting the Chinese government’s efforts to undermine our nation’s security and holding accountable those who violate our laws as part of those efforts.”
Zhao recorded sensitive U.S. military information and transmitted the recordings, photographs, and videos to an unnamed Chinese intelligence officer, which included operational plans for a large-scale U.S. military exercise in the Indo-Pacific region. The plans detailed the “specific location and timing of Naval force movements, amphibious landings, maritime operations, and logistics support,” according to a news release last year.
The former Navy sailor also allegedly photographed electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system located on a U.S. military base in Okinawa, Japan, according to his indictment. The operations were directed by the intelligence officer, who ordered Zhao to destroy evidence of the relationship and conceal it from officers, in exchange for approximately $14,866.
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Zhao, who had a U.S. security clearance, worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, California. The crimes took place between August 2021 and May 2023.
In addition to his sentence, Zhao has been ordered to pay a $5,500 fine. If Zhao had not accepted a plea deal, he could have faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted of both charges.
