China’s domestic security officials said they arrested a Chinese national for allegedly spying on behalf of the CIA, a move that comes a week after two U.S. Navy sailors were arrested for allegedly spying for China.
Chinese authorities arrested a man for allegedly spying on behalf of the CIA.
In a statement, the Chinese Ministry of State Security identified the arrested individual as 52-year-old Zeng Moumou and said he was employed at a military-industrial company and had access to classified information.
The statement claims that Zeng was befriended by a CIA operative in Italy when he had traveled to the country as part of an official study tour and had his political stance “shaken” by the operative’s boasting and soliciting of “Western values.”
Zeng was purportedly promised cash rewards and an offer for an immigration path for his family in return for “sensitive information” about the Chinese military, the statement added.
The ministry alleges Zeng provided large amounts of sensitive information to the CIA after returning to China.
Last week, two U.S. Navy sailors were arrested for “transmitting sensitive military information” to China. According to the Justice Department, the two were separate from each other. Jinchao Wei, 22, who served aboard the warship USS Essex, was charged under the Espionage Act for sharing information about his and other U.S. Navy ships with a Chinese government intelligence officer. Jinchao, also known as Patrick Wei, is a naturalized U.S. citizen who chose to “betray his newly adopted country,” according to US Attorney Randy Grossman. The second individual, 26-year-old Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, also known as Thomas, was charged with “receiving bribes” from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for details about a U.S. military exercise in the Indo-Pacific and photos of electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system installed on a U.S. base in Okinawa, Japan.