Two Chinese Nationals Sentenced to 30 Months in US for Spying on Navy Personnel

A federal judge in California has sentenced two Chinese nationals to 30 months in prison each for acting as unregistered agents of China's Ministry of State Security and gathering intelligence on United States Navy personnel and installations, the Department of Justice said in a statement on Friday, October 30.

Liren "Ryan" Lai, 40, and Yuance Chen, 39, were each also sentenced to three years of supervised release. US District Judge Jon Tigar imposed the sentences. Both men had pleaded guilty, Lai on December 12, 2025 and Chen on February 20, 2026, to conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government without prior notification to the attorney general, and to acting as agents of a foreign government without prior notification.

A scheme run from at least 2021

According to court documents cited by the Justice Department, Lai and Chen began acting as agents of the Ministry of State Security, China's foreign intelligence arm, no later than May 2021. Lai, who arrived in the United States on a tourist visa, recruited Chen, a permanent resident, into the scheme and at first served as an intermediary between Chen and intelligence officers, until Chen was able to receive his orders directly from his handler.

In 2022, the two men facilitated a secret cash payment of $10,000 from China, arranging for people in the United States to drop the cash at a specified location for collection by someone else, an arrangement known as a dead drop. The Washington Times reported that the cash was left in a backpack in a locker in Livermore, California.

Photos of bases, recruits and sailors

Chen gathered information on US military installations and personnel at the direction of Lai and Ministry officers. He obtained photographs of a naval facility, identified in court reporting as Navy Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington, and photographs and videos of military recruits and active duty sailors at a Navy recruiting station in Southern California. Chen also collected personal information about a US Navy employee and kept detailed biographical information on military personnel who were seen as potential intelligence recruitment targets.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg 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 United States. US Attorney Craig Missakian said the defendants "were directed by a foreign intelligence service to gather information about the U.S. military in the hopes of undermining our national security."

The two men were arrested in an FBI operation in June 2025. The Justice Department did not say how many times the pair had facilitated payments, or how many people they had successfully recruited in the United States.