In the trial of a U.S. Navy sailor from San Diego who is accused of espionage for allegedly selling military secrets to a Chinese intelligence official, jurors started their second day of deliberations on Wednesday.
25-year-old Jinchao Wei, a machinist’s mate on board the USS Essex, is charged with providing a person he met online with private information about US Navy ships.
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According to the prosecution, the suspected officer first got in touch with Wei via a Chinese social media platform in early 2022.
Prosecutors claim that after Wei was paid $500 to investigate the docking locations of other Navy ships during those early discussions, he told a fellow sailor, “This is quite obviously (expletive) espionage.”
US Navy sailor based in Japan charged with espionage
2 US Navy sailors charged with providing sensitive military information to China
Prosecutors claim that Wei received thousands of dollars over the course of the following 18 months in exchange for sending images and videos of the USS Essex and thousands of pages of technical and operational documentation pertaining to U.S. Navy surface warfare ships.
However, Wei’s defense lawyer, Sean Jones, informed jurors during closing arguments Tuesday morning in federal court in San Diego that the government had not provided evidence that Wei had intentionally engaged in espionage. The lawyer contended that Wei thought the man he was talking to was just a Chinese scholar with an interest in military vessels and characterized their exchanges as instructive.
According to Jones, the espionage comment alluded to a particular request made by the accused officer, which Wei declined to fulfill. Jones claimed that Wei was then reassured that there was nothing undesirable about any of the demands that followed.
The prosecution and defense argued about the significance of the information that Wei purportedly revealed.
While Jones compared many of the documents Wei sent to what one might find inside an automobile owner’s manual and claimed that a large portion of the material was already publicly available online, Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Barry said that the information could be used to target or sabotage ships. Barry refuted this claim.
Both sides concurred that Wei’s actions were not supported by any indication of a political or ideological motivation. Jones contended that the lack of such political inclinations demonstrated Wei’s lack of espionage purpose. Barry contended that Wei had financial motivations, but Jones retorted that Wei never asked for payment for the materials he delivered.
Additionally, the prosecutor contended that Wei was well aware that he was breaking the law.
According to Barry, Wei had been trained by the Navy to identify foreign government recruitment operations, and an examination of his online activity revealed that he had researched past instances of U.S. Navy sailors who were charged with and found guilty of espionage.
Wei is charged with seven offenses, including conspiracy and espionage.
Wei’s prosecution marked the first time an espionage-related allegation has been brought against a person in the Southern District of California, according to then-San Diego U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman at the time of his arrest.
On similar charges, another U.S. Navy sailor from Naval Base Ventura County was also arrested at the same time. Petty official Wenheng Zhao, the sailor who was charged with providing a Chinese intelligence official with classified military material, pled guilty to federal crimes and was given a 27-month prison sentence last year.
