Two Chinese nationals jailed 30 months for recruiting US military personnel as spies
· World · Al Jazeera, The Hindu
Liren 'Ryan' Lai and Yuance Chen were each sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release after admitting to recruiting US military service members to spy for Beijing. The pair operated a long-running scheme to collect national security information, using dead-drop cash payments of $10,000 and $20,000 from China. Lai recruited Chen, a permanent resident, and both obtained photographs of a naval facility, military recruits, and active-duty sailors. The US Department of Justice stated the men acted as agents of China's Ministry of State Security beginning no later than May 2021.
Why it matters
The convictions underscore the US government's focus on countering foreign intelligence operations targeting its military, with the two men now facing prison terms for conspiring to act as agents of a foreign government without notification.
Read the original report — Al Jazeera
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