US condemns two Chinese agents for spying on military facilities and recruiting informants

Two Chinese citizens were sentenced this Friday to 30 months in prison each for participating in clandestine intelligence operations aimed at obtaining U.S. military information and recruiting members of the Armed Forces as informants for the communist regime of Xi Jinping.

The convicted, Liren ''Ryan'' Lai, 40, and Yuance Chen, 39, acted under the orders of the Ministry of State Security of China (MSS), one of the main espionage agencies of the Beijing regime, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

In addition to prison sentences, both must serve three years of supervised release for conspiring to act and perform as agents of a foreign government without notifying U.S. authorities.

Clandestine operations against U.S. security

According to the Department of Justice, the defendants participated in various undercover activities, including the clandestine delivery of money in exchange for sensitive national security information.

One of the mechanisms employed was the so-called ''dead drop,'' a technique used by espionage services to exchange money or information without the involved parties having to meet physically.

Authorities also determined that both collected information about U.S. military facilities and assisted in identifying potential informants within the Armed Forces.

The Deputy Attorney General for National Security, John A. Eisenberg, described Lai and Chen's activities as extensive and brazen, asserting that the U.S. government will continue to pursue those who facilitate foreign espionage operations.

For his part, federal prosecutor Craig H. Missakian stated that the actions of the convicted aimed to undermine the national security of the United States.

Roman Rozhavsky, deputy director of the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, warned that the Chinese regime's attempts to infiltrate the U.S. Armed Forces demonstrate how far Beijing is willing to go to threaten the country's security.

Photographs of military bases and recruitment searches

Court documents revealed that Chen initially entered the United States in 2015 on a tourist visa and later obtained conditional permanent residency after marrying a U.S. citizen in 2022.

That same year, Chen and a collaborator identified as his wife photographed restricted areas of the Kitsap Naval Base in Washington state. Subsequently, Chen was instructed to photograph a U.S. Navy recruiting office in San Gabriel, California.

During that operation, both obtained images of panels containing full names, hometowns, training programs, and information about military recruiters. Prosecutors highlighted that numerous applicants identified in those records had indicated China as their place of origin.

The photographs were later delivered to a person considered an MSS agent, presumably to identify potential recruitment targets.

These activities evidenced the interest of Xi Jinping's intelligence services in leveraging personal information and individual connections to attempt to establish espionage networks within U.S. military institutions.

Secret payments and contacts with Chinese intelligence

According to the investigation, Lai recruited Chen to collaborate with the MSS in 2021. In January 2022, while both were in China, they organized an operation to leave a backpack with at least $10,000 in a locker at a recreational facility in Livermore, California.

Authorities also noted that Chinese agents instructed Chen on how to approach U.S. military personnel, what compensations to offer, and how to avoid being discovered.

Chen managed to contact a Navy employee through social media and arranged a visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in San Diego. He later shared information about that person with his MSS contacts.

In March 2023, Lai traveled to the United States to deliver a phone intended for maintaining clandestine communications with Chinese intelligence.

Chen also made trips to Guangzhou in April 2024 and March 2025 to meet with MSS officials and discuss payments for his activities.

In May 2025, he received instructions to facilitate another covert transfer of approximately $20,000 in Phoenix, Arizona. Finally, the FBI arrested Chen in Oregon and Lai in Houston on June 27.