From China to Houston to cities and military bases in Oregon, Washington and California, federal agents tracked down and arrested two alleged Chinese spies for acting as agents of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) targeting U.S. Navy personnel.
Last week, the culmination of a multi-agency investigation resulted in law enforcement officers disrupting a “clandestine PRC Ministry of State Security Intelligence network operating in the United States,” the Department of Justice said.
FBI Houston and Houston Police officers arrested Liren Lai “for allegedly carrying out clandestine intelligence (spy) operations Friday. Lai sought to identify U.S. Navy personnel for potential recruitment by the Chinese Ministry of State Security,” the Houston FBI said. Lai, a PRC national, arrived in Houston in April and overstayed his tourist visa.
On the same day, FBI Portland agents arrested Yuance Chen, 38, a PRC national and legal permanent resident, in Happy Valley, Oregon, on similar charges. Both appeared in federal court in Houston and Portland on Monday.
The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California issued the charges and is prosecuting the case. They were charged with carrying out clandestine intelligence operations in the U.S. on behalf of the PRC’s foreign intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), including targeting U.S. Navy personnel and bases.
“This case underscores the Chinese government’s sustained and aggressive effort to infiltrate our military and undermine our national security from within,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said. “The Justice Department will not stand by while hostile nations embed spies in our country – we will expose foreign operatives, hold their agents to account, and protect the American people from covert threats to our national security.”
“The Chinese Communist Party thought they were getting away with their scheme to operate on U.S. soil, utilizing spy craft, like dead drops, to pay their sources,” FBI Director Kash Patel said. “This case was a complex, coordinated effort and is an example of outstanding counterintelligence work done by FBI San Francisco, Portland, Houston, San Diego, and the [FBI’s] Counterintelligence Division.”
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said that PRC MSS operatives “dedicate years to recruiting individuals and cultivating them as intelligence assets to do their bidding within the United States,” and the FBI’s National Security Division is working to “neutralize our adversaries’ clandestine spy networks.”
Omar Lopez, director the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), added that “the PRC has for years attempted through various means to recruit U.S. service members as intelligence assets due to their access to sensitive military information.”
Unsealed on Tuesday, the criminal complaint states that the PRC government conducts intelligence activities against the U.S. through multiple agencies; the MSS focuses on collecting civilian intelligence, counterintelligence, foreign intelligence and political security. MSS operatives “seek to obtain information on political, economic, and security policies that might affect the PRC, along with military, scientific, and technical information of value to the PRC,” with the U.S. as its principal target, the complaint states.
It also alleges that Lai recruited Chen in 2021. In early January 2022, they facilitated making a $10,000 cash dead-drop payment in Livermore, Calif., on behalf of the MSS.
They also targeted Navy personnel at a naval installation in Washington, and a Navy recruitment center in San Gabriel, Calif.; information they obtained about Navy recruits were shared with MSS, according to the charges. Chen also received instruction from the MSS on how to engage and recruit future Navy sailors, contacted at least one Navy employee over social media and provided information about the employee to the MSS, and met with MSS intelligence officers in China several times, according to the charges.
Lai told immigration officials he traveled to Houston for business as an online retail seller and planned to stay for two weeks. After overstaying his tourist visa, he traveled by car to southern California and returned to Texas.
If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
The announcement comes after a U.S. House report identified hundreds of Chinese espionage incidents within three years under the Biden administration and the Department of Homeland Security warned police about Chinese signal jammers being used to thwart operations, The Center Square reported.
It also comes after the greatest number of Chinese nationals illegally entered the U.S. under the Biden administration, more than 176,000 nationwide, raising national security concerns, The Center Square exclusively reported.
