When U.S. Navy sailor Jinchao Wei received a message on social media in February 2022 from someone proclaiming to have a strong interest in naval ships, Wei was rightly suspicious.
He told a friend at the time that he had been approached and offered $500 but that he was “no idiot,” noting that this was “quite obviously” espionage, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Despite this, Wei soon began interacting with a man he would term “Big Brother Andy” on encrypted messaging apps. He shared sensitive photographs, documents and operating manuals of U.S. ships with the unnamed man from China in exchange for payments totaling more than $12,000 over 18 months.
On Monday, Wei was sentenced to 200 months — more than 16 years — in jail after being convicted of espionage in August 2025.
“Yes, I screwed up,” Wei scrawled in a handwritten note to the judge ahead of his sentencing, pleading for “love and mercy.”
The 25-year-old, also known as Patrick Wei, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 2021, working as a machinist’s mate, court documents show. He was arrested in 2023 as he arrived for work at Naval Base San Diego, the homeport of the Pacific Fleet, where he worked on amphibious assault ship, the USS Essex.
Following a five-day trial, the jury convicted Wei of six crimes in August 2025, including conspiracy to commit espionage, espionage and unlawful export of defense-related technical data. He was found not guilty on one count of naturalization fraud, the Justice Department said.
Court documents portrayed Wei as lonely and somewhat hapless, having moved to the United States as a teen. His mother said in a letter to the judge that Wei was sent to a boarding school in China when he was 10, before they both moved to Wisconsin in 2016. Wei’s mother went on to marry a man Wei described as a “truly unsavory character,” saying his experiences during this time destroyed “his self-esteem, confidence” and “ability to engage with others.”
In February 2022, Wei was recruited via social media by a Chinese intelligence officer who posed as a naval enthusiast working for a state-owned Chinese shipbuilding company, the Justice Department said. Court documents revealed detailed messages between Wei and his handler where the pair spoke about the need for secrecy, payment methods and efforts to cover their tracks including using new computers and phones, the agency added.
During a 2023 call, Wei bragged to his mother that while other “Chinese serving in the U.S. Navy are still trying to figure out how to make extra money, and driving cabs,” he was “just leaking secrets,” to which she applauded him for “making money with talent,” court documents show. Later, in a supporting letter to the court, his mother described him as “kind, respectful, and strong in spirit,” as well as “a devoted Christian.”
Wei, in his role as a machinist’s mate, held a U.S. security clearance and had access to critical information about the ship’s weapons, propulsion and desalination systems, the Justice Department said. He shared photographs and videos of the USS Essex as well as locations of other Navy ships. He also provided descriptions of defensive weapons and told the Chinese officer about problems with his ship and others. Wei shared around 60 technical and operating manuals to his Chinese handler, about U.S. Navy systems, the Justice Department added.
“By sharing thousands of documents, operating manuals, and export-controlled and sensitive information with a Chinese intelligence officer, Petty Officer Wei knowingly betrayed his fellow service members and the American people,” Naval Criminal Investigative Service Director Omar Lopez said Monday.
The indictment did not name the Chinese intelligence officer involved in the case, referred to only as “Conspirator A,” but said their identity was known to the grand jury.
In his own letter to the judge, Wei said his “introversion and loneliness clouded my judgment regarding friend or foe.” He wrote that he had an “enormous amount of time for reflection and introspection” since his arrest, “which has highlighted how incredibly stupid, naive and careless I was.”
Wei’s lawyers did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment from The Post.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wei had “betrayed his country and compromised the national security of the United States.” He added, “The Justice Department will not tolerate this behavior.”
Wei was one of two California-based Navy sailors arrestedin August 2023. Though the cases were separate, both men had security clearances and were accused of passing sensitive national defense information and military secrets to Chinese agents in exchange for money.
The second man — Wenheng Zhao, also known as Thomas Zhao — later pleaded guilty to transmitting sensitive U.S. military information to a Chinese intelligence officer and was sentenced to over two years in prison and given a fine of $5,500. According to prosecutors, he received more than $14,000 over the course of 21 months — secretly passing “sensitive, nonpublic information regarding U.S. Navy operational security, military trainings and exercises, and critical infrastructure” to the Chinese agent.
Their arrests came during a period of increased tension between China and the U.S., with the detection of an alleged Chinese spy balloon leading then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a trip to Beijing.
The post Former sailor sentenced to 16 years jail after selling Navy secrets to China appeared first on Washington Post.
