US Navy sailor's mom encouraged him to pass military details to China, prosecutor says

The mother of a U.S. Navy sailor charged with providing sensitive military information to China encouraged him to cooperate with a Chinese intelligence officer, telling her son it might help him get a job with the Chinese government someday, the prosecution said Tuesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Sheppard made the accusation at a hearing in federal court in San Diego in urging the judge not to release Jinchao Wei, who was arrested last week on a rarely used espionage charge.

Jinchao Wei, 22, also known as Patrick Wei, is one of two sailors based in California accused of accepting bribes in exchange for information concerning "the defense and weapon capabilities of U.S. Navy ships, potential vulnerabilities of these ships, and information related to ship movement," according to a grand jury indictment. Prosecutors have not said whether the two were courted or paid by the same Chinese intelligence officer as part of a larger scheme.

The indictment alleges that beginning last year, Wei transmitted "documents, sketches, plans, notes, and other information" to his Chinese handler, who allegedly instructed Wei to destroy any evidence substantiating their relationship. Some of the information he allegedly sent included technical data for the USS Essex and other amphibious assault ships.

Defense attorney Jason Conforti told U.S. Magistrate Judge Michelle Pettit that Wei is not a danger to the community and no longer has access to any military information.

In arguing against his release, Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Sheppard told the court that Wei's only relative in the United States is his mother, who was aware of her son's arrangement and encouraged him to keep helping the Chinese intelligence officer because it might get him a job someday with China's Communist party after he leaves the U.S. Navy.

Sheppard said prosecutors would move to keep Wei detained on grounds of being a flight risk and a danger to the community.

Sheppard told the court that the intelligence officer offered to fly Wei and his mother to China to meet them in person, and that Wei searched online for flights to China shortly before his arrest.

Wei, who was assigned as a machinist's mate on the USS Essex, was arrested last week at Naval Base San Diego as he was arriving for work.

The Justice Department charged Wei under a Espionage Act statute that makes it a crime to gather or deliver information to aid a foreign government.

Prosecutors have said Wei, who was born in China, was first approached by a Chinese intelligence officer in February 2022 while he was applying to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. They say the officer sought information and photographs of ship movements out of San Diego ports.

Wei also allegedly told a fellow sailor he was being recruited by an intelligence agency for "quite obviously (expletive) espionage," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors allege Wei also provided the Chinese officer with photographs of military hardware and details about an upcoming maritime warfare exercise involving U.S. Marines.

On Tuesday, Sheppard said some of that information included details on living conditions aboard the Essex, manuals for its weapons systems, and information regarding its onboard communications.

Wei's arrest coincided with the arrest last week of another U.S. Navy sailor based out of Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme.

That sailor, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, was also ordered held on Tuesday and faces similar accusations of sending sensitive military information to a Chinese intelligence officer, including operational plans for a large- scale U.S. military exercise in the Indo-Pacific Region.

Both men allegedly received thousands of dollars for the information they're accused of passing along, but officials declined to comment on whether both sailors were communicating with the same intelligence officer.