OAN Staff Blake Wolf
7:22 PM – Thursday, August 21, 2025
An active-duty U.S. Navy sailor was convicted on Wednesday on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage for selling military secrets to a Chinese intelligence officer while on active duty.
The sailor in question, Jinchao Wei, was convicted by a federal jury on Wednesday on six counts, including two espionage charges and four counts of conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control Act, which prohibits individuals from exporting technical data related to a defense article without a license from the Department of State.
25-year-old Wei held a U.S. security clearance due to his role as a machinist’s mate on the amphibious assault ship U.S.S. Essex at Naval Base San Diego. He “had access to sensitive national defense information about the ship’s weapons, propulsion and desalination systems.”
Wei was recruited by a Chinese intelligence officer via social media on February 14, 2022. The Chinese officer “at first portrayed himself as a naval enthusiast who worked for the state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation. The evidence showed that even during the early days of his espionage career, Wei strongly suspected the intelligence officer’s true identity and motive,” according to the DOJ release.
A week later, Wei told a friend, who was also in the U.S. Navy, that he believed he was “on the radar of a China intelligence organization,” while describing the individual as “extremely suspicious” — due to his interest in the maintenance cycle of Naval ships.
Wei went on to tell his friend and colleague that the suspected Chinese intelligence official had requested that he “walk the pier” to “see which ships are docked” on a “daily basis,” while adding that he would be paid $500 for his efforts. Wei noted that he is “no idiot,” explicitly stating that “this is quite obviously f***ing espionage.”
In response, Wei’s friend suggested that he cut all contact with the suspicious person.
However, “instead of heeding his friend’s advice, the very next day Wei transitioned his communications with the intelligence officer to a different encrypted messaging application that he believed was more secure and began spying for the intelligence officer,” the DOJ release stated.
“The evidence showed that between March 2022 and when he was arrested in August 2023, Wei, at the request of the intelligence officer, sent photographs and videos of the Essex, advised the officer of the location of various Navy ships, and described the defensive weapons of the Essex. He also described problems with his ship and other ships based at Naval Base San Diego and elsewhere. And, he sent the intelligence officer thousands of pages of technical and operational information about U.S. Navy surface warfare ships like the Essex that he took from restricted U.S. Navy computer systems,” the release continued.
In exchange for the information, the Chinese information officer paid Wei “more than $12,000 over 18 months.”
“In one of his larger thefts of U.S. Navy data, Wei sold the intelligence officer at least 30 technical and operating manuals about U.S. Navy systems. These manuals contained export control warnings and detailed the operations of multiple systems aboard the Essex and similar ships, including power, steering, weapons control, aircraft and deck elevators, as well as damage and casualty controls. In total, Wei sold the intelligence officer approximately 60 technical and operating manuals about U.S. Navy ships, as well as dozens of photographs and papers about the U.S. Navy and Wei’s assignments on the Essex.”
Wei was subsequently arrested in August 2023 on espionage charges as he arrived for work on the U.S.S. Essex at Naval Base San Diego.
“The defendant’s actions represent an egregious betrayal of the trust placed in him as a member of the U.S. military,” stated U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon. “By trading military secrets to the People’s Republic of China for cash, he jeopardized not only the lives of his fellow sailors but also the security of the entire nation and our allies. The jury’s verdict serves as a crucial reminder that the Department of Justice will vigorously prosecute traitors.”
“Petty Officer Wei deserves to be held accountable for betraying his oath to the Navy and jeopardizing the safety of his fellow sailors by willingly providing sensitive information to a Chinese intelligence officer for his own personal gain,” stated Special Agent in Charge James Allen of the NCIS Office of Special Projects. “NCIS will continue to leverage its unique law enforcement and counterintelligence authorities to aggressively root out those who put our nation’s warfighters at risk. We sincerely thank the FBI and the Department of Justice for their significant assistance to this complex investigation.”
Wei is scheduled to be sentenced on December 1st, with the maximum penalty being life in prison.
Wei’s lawyer, Sean Jones, argues that Wei actually “loves America,” and “has no allegiance to China.” Jones also stated that Wei believed he was selling information to an individual for “the apparent personal or professional benefit of the recipient,” rather than the benefit of China.
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