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Spy Sailor Convicted

by AW1Ed••28

US Navy sailor convicted for selling military secrets to China

Riley Ceder

An active-duty U.S. Navy sailor was convicted of espionage by a federal jury on Wednesday, according to a Department of Justice press release.

Machinist’s Mate 3rd Class Jinchao Wei, 25, who was stationed at Naval Base San Diego, sold Navy secrets to a Chinese intelligence officer for $12,000 over the course of 18 months.

“The defendant’s actions represent an egregious betrayal of the trust placed in him as a member of the U.S. military,” Adam Gordon, the United States attorney for the Southern District of California, said in a statement on Wednesday. “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.”

Wei was convicted of six crimes, including conspiracy to commit espionage, espionage and unlawful export of, and conspiracy to export, technical data related to defense articles in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the release said.

He was arrested in August 2023 on espionage charges as he arrived for work at the amphibious assault ship Essex at Naval Base San Diego, California.

Wei began his criminal plot on Feb. 14, 2022, when he engaged in communication on social media with a Chinese intelligence officer who claimed to work for the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation. Regardless of officer’s feigned identity, evidence presented during court proceedings outlined Wei’s understanding of the officer’s ulterior motive, according to the release.

This was shortly after he was briefed through counterintelligence training that foreign adversaries might try to recruit him through social media, according to early Military Times reporting, which cited his indictment.

Wei, who possessed a U.S. security clearance and was privy to national defense information about the Essex’s weapons systems and infrastructure, informed another U.S. Navy petty officer that he’d been tasked with spying on behalf of the People’s Republic of China.

Military Times

Not exactly master spy material. Sentencing guidelines for espionage are especially complex. Statutes provide for a wide variety of different espionage crimes, and charges are based on the specific type of information and the security value of that information. MM3 Wei has been awarded six such charges and can look forward to a very long stay as a Federal guest.

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28 thoughts on “Spy Sailor Convicted”

    1. Too bad he’ll be protected at Leavenworth. Not likely any games of playing husband or wife. As Hondo used to repeatedly convey, the military corrections cadre don’t suffer fools gladly.

  2. If we were to apply a strictly DOGE sort of sentencing here, wouldn’t it just make sense to kill a traitor? How much money could we save? On a separate note, not sure if old Jinchao was a traitor because I doubt he was ever loyal to America in the first place. But clearly lied on his oath.

    On a good note, this being navy, you’d think there would be a yardarm somewhere close by.

  4. Machinest Mate 3RD Wei Just discraced the Engineering Dept. Brotherhood and the late Engineering Officer John Snipes is now turning over in his grave over Wei’s unforgivable act of treason. The bright side of this whole affair is that Wei can work in the prison kitchen.
    1- 20 awdas shrimp fried lice and chow fun noodles ready wun ouwa.
    2-20 won ton soops.
    3-20 faw chon cookies.

      1. Well, than wei should be given 20 lashes with a wet rice noodle then wei could get a good laugh, couldn’t wei, and I see that wei are the only ones on the pun run all alone and speaking of all alone, how about the song “All Alone” by
        Earl Lewis and the Channels 1958 on the backwidth side of the Gone record label.

    2. I like the way you think. Read about that in the Aubrey/Maturin series.

      A form of punishment in the old days of the British Navy for the more serious crimes committed on board. It could be awarded only by sentence of a court martial. The man undergoing sentence was placed in a boat in which a ship’s grating had been lashed upright across the thwarts, and rowed alongside each ship lying in harbour. While bound to the grating he was given twelve strokes with a cat-o’-nine-tails by a boatswain’s mate of the ship off which the boat was lying. After each infliction of a dozen strokes a blanket was thrown across his back while he was being rowed to the next ship, and it was usually necessary to ‘comb the cat’. A naval doctor was always in attendance in the boat to make certain that the man undergoing punishment was fit to receive further instalments of his sentence as he came alongside each ship. In each ship visited the crew were mustered on deck and in the rigging to witness the punishment, drums on board beating out the ‘Rogue’s March’ as the boat approached.

      “Rogues March”
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a_CztSZYfE

  6. After completing his sentence, ship him off to China.

    They’ll know what to do with him.

  7. Tattoo a clown face on his ass and he’ll go from class clown to ass clown…..I’m sure there are plenty of clown lovers locked up.

    Mike
    USAF Retired

  8. I move that we cease calling them “The Chinese” and return to the time honored title of “Heathen Chinee” forthwith.

  11. With this conviction, is he stilled “encouraged” to make an allotment to the Navy Relief drive? Skipper wants 100% participation, zero excuses.

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