The two operatives utilized dead drop payments to exchange tens of thousands of dollars for information concerning national security. Chen personally assembled dossiers on potential recruitment targets, tracking a civilian Navy employee alongside active-duty sailors. He also photographed military recruits and captured imagery of a naval facility as part of their intelligence-gathering mandate. Following their June 2025 arrests, the Department of Justice secured guilty pleas from both men while withholding the full scope of individuals contacted during the operation.
Key points
Chinese intelligence used an operative on a tourist visa to enlist a permanent resident i…: Chinese intelligence used an operative on a tourist visa to enlist a permanent resident into an espionage network.
The espionage effort focused heavily on gathering personal profiles of Navy personnel and…: The espionage effort focused heavily on gathering personal profiles of Navy personnel and surveilling military facilities.
Federal prosecutors have not publicly disclosed the complete number of US individuals rec…: Federal prosecutors have not publicly disclosed the complete number of US individuals recruited or total payments delivered.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
Liren Lai and Yuance Chen admitted to facilitating ‘dead drop’ cash payments worth at least $30,000 to people in the US.
Two Chinese nationals have been jailed in the United States after admitting to trying to recruit US military service members to spy for Beijing.
Liren “Ryan” Lai, 40, and Yuance Chen, 39, were each sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement on Friday.
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The men sought to arrange “dead drop” cash payments in exchange for information related to US national security, the statement also said.
The pair operated a “long-running”, “extensive” and “brazen” scheme to undermine US national security and support Chinese intelligence operations and recruitment in the US, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John…
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