A former U.S. Navy sailor was sentenced on Monday to nearly 17 years in prison, federal prosecutors said, after he was convicted of spying for China and using his security clearance to sell secrets about the capabilities of American warships, including their vulnerabilities.
The onetime sailor, Jinchao Wei, known as Patrick Wei, 25, was a machinist’s mate aboard the Essex, an amphibious assault ship moored at Naval Base San Diego.
A jury in U.S. District Court in San Diego found Mr. Wei guilty in August on six of seven criminal counts he faced, including two spying charges brought under the Espionage Act, and four conspiracy counts in violation of the Arms Export Control Act.
The Navy characterized some of the information sold by Mr. Wei, for a total of $12,000, as “critical technology.” He was dishonorably discharged from the military late last year.
A second sailor, who was arrested at the same time as Mr. Wei, was sentenced in 2024 to 27 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring with a Chinese intelligence officer and accepting a bribe.
Prosecutors had argued that Mr. Wei, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in China, had betrayed his adopted country and had pushed for a sentence of nearly 22 years in prison. He had been facing a maximum possible sentence of life in prison.
In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors wrote that he had “compromised the U.S. Navy’s entire fleet of amphibious assault ships by sending the Chinese government thousands of pages of technical information about the fleet’s complex ship systems and how the U.S. Navy operates and maintains those systems.”
“He was sworn to protect the U.S. and the sensitive information he was given,” prosecutors wrote in the memorandum. “If necessary, he was called to fight and die for the United States.”
In a handwritten letter filed with the court a few days before his sentencing, Mr. Wei apologized for his actions and asked for leniency.
“Yes, I screwed up,” he wrote.
Mr. Wei’s lawyers had sought a sentence of 30 months for their client, who they wrote in court documents had falsely believed that the Chinese intelligence officer who had recruited him was a naval enthusiast who worked for the state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation.
Mr. Wei considered the man a mentor and had been eager to please him, his lawyers wrote, noting that he had spent his early childhood in isolation while being raised by his grandmother and uncle, both of whom were mentally unstable.
“Mr. Wei’s actions were in no way the result of any hatred or animosity towards the U.S. government nor were they a means to get rich,” the lawyers wrote.
In February 2022, the Chinese intelligence officer recruited Mr. Wei on social media, offering him $500 for daily updates on which ships were docked at the base, investigators said.
Mr. Wei told a friend that he was “no idiot” and that what he was being asked “is quite obviously espionage,” adding an expletive, according to the Justice Department, which cited the comment during Mr. Wei’s trial.
In one instance, Mr. Wei agreed to provide his Chinese contact with information about “the number and training of U.S. Marines during an upcoming international maritime warfare exercise,” according to a federal indictment.
In exchange for $5,000, prosecutors said, he gave the contact at least 30 technical and mechanical ship manuals.
“Members of the United States military swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said in a statement. “This active-duty U.S. Navy sailor betrayed his country and compromised the national security of the United States.” The Navy declined to comment, instead directing requests to the Justice Department.
Arguing that the documents shared by their client could be found online, Mr. Wei’s lawyers disputed that he was as important as prosecutors had contended. Mr. Wei spent most of his days in the Navy sanding and painting the ship that he was assigned to, his lawyers said.
Mr. Wei, who the prosecutors said was evidently seeking U.S. citizenship while working clandestinely with China, was acquitted on one count of unlawful procurement of citizenship.
Neil Vigdor covers breaking news for The Times, with a focus on politics.
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