On Monday, a former US Navy sailor was sentenced to 27 months in prison for divulging information about Indo-Pacific military exercises to Chinese intelligence and accepting nearly US$15,000 in bribes. Wenheng Zhao, also known as Thomas Zhao, pleaded guilty in October to conspiring with a foreign adversary and receiving payments in 14 separate transactions. The case, along with the arrest of a second sailor in August on similar charges, is cited by the US Justice Department as evidence of Beijing’s espionage operations within the United States. Born in China, Zhao, 26, immigrated to the US in 2009, became a naturalized citizen in 2012, and enlisted in the US Navy in 2017, serving as a petty officer at a naval base in Ventura County, California.
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