The US Navy, facing recruiting shortfalls began aggressively targeting foreign nationals in this country, including immigrants who don’t speak English, and people originating from enemy nations. Especially China.

I hate to generalize, but it’s not going well. These cases are from the last few years.

In two separate cases in the Southern and Central Districts of California, two U.S. Navy servicemembers were arrested for transmitting sensitive military information to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

A U.S. Navy sailor, Jinchao Wei, aka Patrick Wei, was arrested yesterday on espionage charges as he arrived for work at Naval Base San Diego, the homeport of the Pacific Fleet.

A U.S. Navy servicemember, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, aka Thomas Zhao, 26, of Monterey Park, California, was arrested following an indictment by a federal grand jury, charging him with receiving bribes in exchange for transmitting sensitive U.S. military information to an individual posing as a maritime economic researcher, but who was actually an intelligence officer from the PRC.

And before that…

Ye Sang “Ivy” Wang, a former U.S. Navy sailor who was a Logistics Specialist First Class assigned to the Naval Special Warfare Command, was sentenced to 30 months in custody and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine for conspiring with her husband and co-defendant, Shaohua “Eric” Wang, to illegally export sensitive military equipment to China for profit.

And

Fan Yang, 34, a naturalized citizen of the United States and Lieutenant in the United States Navy residing in Jacksonville, Florida; Yang Yang, 33, wife of Fan Yang, and a naturalized citizen of the United States residing in Jacksonville, Florida; Ge Songtao, 49, a citizen and resident of the People’s Republic of China; and Zheng Yan, 27, a citizen and resident of the People’s Republic of China.

And

Officials believe Lt Cdr Edward Lin, passed information to a Chinese girlfriend, the New York Times reported, external.

As I said, I hate to generalize, but this keeps happening. And the latest case is particularly bonkers in that it doesn’t even involve China.

A then-U.S. Navy sailor living at Naval Station Great Lakes in Chicago’s north suburbs met in October 2022 with someone he thought was an Iranian terrorist to discuss locations for an attack that would cause the maximum amount of carnage, federal investigators say.

Pang, 38, a naturalized U.S. citizen from China who immigrated here in 1998, admitted in a plea agreement with prosecutors that he took surveillance photos and videos of the outside and inside of the base and agreed to provide the undercover operative military uniforms and a phone that could be used as a detonator for an explosive device, court records show.

During their conversation at the Lake Bluff train station, the sailor, Xuanyu Harry Pang, allegedly referenced surveillance photos he’d taken of Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago on a busy afternoon.

“Remember, like you told me, like, you guys are looking for max damage, right?” Pang asked his accomplice, who was actually working undercover for the FBI. “You saw the street. It was packed. So think about it, like, if you have one guy just walking down the street, all of a sudden (rapid firing sound).”

Some may try spinning this as ‘entrapment’, but Pang was apparently already in contact with someone in Latin America.

Why was Pang bent on this beyond money? Who knows. But the bottom line is you don’t embark on something like this if you have any allegiance to the U.S. or the Navy.

The Navy really needs to stop looking for warm bodies and add patriotism as a basic expectation. That clearly was not how it worked under Biden, but it’s a new game now. Recruitment numbers are apparently improving.

And the Navy can do better than people who join for the training, but hate this country.

I’m not trying to cast aspersions on the many Chinese-American members of the military who serve their country, but there is a problem with the recruitment of Chinese Communist nationals who have clearly remained loyal to China and who can’t be trusted in even the lowest positions in the military.