A member of the United States Navy openly accepted charges of distributing classified military information to a Chinese intelligence official on Tuesday. Notorious for this culpable act was Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, a 26-year-old from Monterey Park, California. Zhao admitted to both conspiring with the Chinese official and accepting a bribe, thereby compromising national security in his position at the Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, California.
Matthew Olsen, the assistant attorney general for national security, issued a grave statement in light of the incident, illustrating the active efforts by China’s intelligence services to bribe soldiers in a bid to extract classified government information. Indubitably, these transgressions jeopardize the national security of the United States.
Zhao’s recent guilty plea is a subsequent event following the arrest and indictment of Zhao and another sailor on similar charges. These accused individuals were alleged to have transmitted sensitive military information to Chinese intelligence agents.
The charges against Zhao, stemming from an indictment made in August, accused him of dispatching high-level details about a major military operation in the Indo-Pacific region. Allegations admit that the recipient was an intelligence officer from China, operating under the guise of a maritime economic researcher.
Furthermore, the case against Zhao, whose duties included installation, maintenance, and servicing of electrical components in U.S. military facilities, suggests that he exploited his position for unlawful purposes. He was alleged to have shared photographs of computer screens exhibiting commands for military drills. Upon further inspection, these documents were found to have been sent to a supposed ‘researcher.’ Along with these treasonous acts, Zhao was charged with sending images of blueprints and layouts of a U.S. radar system, located on a military base in Okinawa, Japan.
As reward for this high-risk betrayal of trust, Zhao received an estimated $15,000 from the intelligence officer, according to prosecutors. Currently, Zhao is under detention and faces up to two decades in prison. The fateful date for his sentencing has been set for January 8.
