Navy Officer Sold Secrets To China, Receives Just 27-Month Sentence

A Navy petty officer has been sentenced to just 27 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to selling military secrets to communist China.

Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring with an intelligence officer and one count of receiving a bribe. The Naval officer from Monterey Park, California, was found to have taken bribes to send sensitive military information to a Chinese intelligence officer.

He shockingly only received 27 months in prison, despite the fact that the conspiracy charge held a maximum of 15 years and the bribery charge held a maximum of five years.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division released a statement about the sentence.

“Mr. Zhao betrayed his solemn oath to defend his country and endangered those who serve in the U.S. military,” the statement read. “Today, he is being held to account for those crimes. The Justice Department is committed to combating the Chinese government’s efforts to undermine our nation’s security and holding accountable those who violate our laws as part of those efforts.”

Zhao reportedly received a payment of at least $14,866 from a Chinese intelligence officer for the information he transmitted about the U.S. Navy’s operational security, critical infrastructure, and military training and exercises, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The Navy petty officer, who had a security clearance, was stationed at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, California. The DOJ noted that the bribery scheme took place from August 2021 to May 2023, when Zhao entered restricted areas to obtain the information he sold to China.

Some of the information transmitted included the plans for a large-scale training exercise scheduled to be held in the Pacific, as well as operational orders and documents regarding Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar systems in Okinawa, Japan.

U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California also issued a statement about Zhao’s actions, declaring: “Zhao betrayed his country and disgraced himself when he accepted bribes from an intelligence officer with the People’s Republic of China. As a result, he has now been removed from the military and will serve time in federal prison. Today’s sentence shows that my office will swiftly act to root out and punish those who seek to undermine our nation’s security.”