{"id":178370,"date":"2026-01-14T10:09:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T15:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=178370"},"modified":"2026-01-14T10:09:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T15:09:23","slug":"sailor-sentenced-selling-secrets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=178370","title":{"rendered":"Sailor Sentenced Selling Secrets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-178371 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/essex-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/essex-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/essex-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/essex-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/essex-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/essex-2048x1363.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><br \/>\n<em>USS Essex (LHD-2)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>USS Essex (LHD 2) is the second ship in the Wasp-class of multipurpose amphibious assault ships. She was designed to carry a full range of Navy and Marine Corps helicopters, AV-8B Harrier II and F-35B Lightning II attack aircraft, Air Cushion Landing Craft (LCAC)\u00a0 and various amphibious vehicles and assault vessels. She is the 5th ship to bear the name dating back to the frigate Essex launched from Salem, Mass. on 30 September 1799.<\/p>\n<h3>Sailor to Serve 16-Year Prison Sentence for Selling Secrets to China<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Gidget Fuentes<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A former U.S. Navy sailor was sentenced Monday to 16 years in prison for espionage after a jury convicted him of selling the sea service\u2019s secrets to China.<br \/>\nA federal judge in San Diego, Calif., handed down the 200-month \u2013 or 16-year, eight-months \u2013 prison sentence to former Machinist\u2019s Mate 2nd Class Jinchao \u201cPatrick\u201d Wei, 25, who was convicted in August of espionage and conspiracy to commit espionage, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California.<\/p>\n<p>Over an 18-month period, Wei gave a Chinese military intelligence officer dozens of sensitive manuals, technical reports and photographs of Navy surface ships. In return, Wei collected over $12,000 for his actions, which he told a friend likely was \u201cespionage.\u201d The sailor, who was subsequently kicked out of the Navy, had worked in the main engine spaces of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD-2), homeported at Naval Base San Diego.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe betrayed his oath, his shipmates, the United States Navy and the American people, a level of disloyalty that strikes at the heart of our national security and demanded this powerful sentence,\u201d federal prosecutor Adam Gordon said in a news release announcing the sentencing results.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2026\/01\/13\/sailor-to-serve-16-year-prison-sentence-for-selling-secrets-to-china\">USNI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He turned over pics and tech\/operating manuals some of which were export controlled- not even classified as Confidential. In other words a lot of what was readily available from open sources or easily extrapolated from the industry development process.<\/p>\n<p>Espionage and conspiracy to commit espionage convictions can carry life sentences as well as $250,000 in fines. The prosecutors were looking at 20+ years. He got off light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>USS Essex (LHD-2) USS Essex (LHD 2) is the second ship in the Wasp-class of multipurpose &hellip; <a title=\"Sailor Sentenced Selling Secrets\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=178370\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sailor Sentenced Selling Secrets<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":178371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[296,185],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china","category-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=178370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/178371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=178370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=178370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=178370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}