00:00 Today we are announcing charges in the Central and Southern Districts of California against
00:06 two active duty members of the United States Navy.
00:11 Through the alleged crimes committed by these defendants, sensitive military information
00:17 ended up in the hands of the People's Republic of China.
00:20 Two US Navy sailors have been arrested and accused of providing sensitive military information
00:25 to China, including details on wartime exercises, naval operations, and critical technical material.
00:32 The two sailors, both based in California, were charged with similar moves to provide
00:36 sensitive intelligence to the Chinese.
00:39 But they were separate cases, and it was not clear if the two were quoted or paid by the
00:43 same Chinese intelligence officer as part of a larger scheme.
00:47 Federal officials at a news conference in San Diego declined to specify whether the
00:51 sailors were aware of each other's actions.
00:54 Jinzhao Wei, a 22-year-old sailor assigned to the San Diego-based USS Essex, was arrested
01:00 on Wednesday on a charge related to espionage involving conspiracy to send national defense
01:06 information to Chinese officials.
01:07 Wei, who was born in China, was approached by a Chinese intelligence officer while he
01:12 was applying to become a naturalized US citizen, prosecutors said, and admitted to the officer
01:17 that he knew the arrangement could affect his application.
01:21 The Justice Department also charged sailor Wen-Heng Zhao, based at Naval Base Ventura
01:25 County north of San Diego, with conspiring to collect bribes from a Chinese intelligence
01:30 officer in exchange for US naval exercise plans, operational orders, and photos and
01:35 videos of electrical systems at Navy facilities.
01:38 The information included operational plans for a US military exercise in the Indo-Pacific
01:43 region.
01:44 Prosecutors say that Zhao also surreptitiously recorded information that he handed over.
01:49 The pair of cases also come on the heels of another insider threat prosecution tied to
01:54 the US military with the Justice Department in April arresting a Massachusetts Air National
01:59 Guardsman on charges of leaking classified military documents about Russia's war in Ukraine
02:04 and other sensitive national security topics on Discord, a social media platform popular
02:09 with people playing online games.
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02:17 (upbeat music)
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