Two U.S. Navy sailors were arrested on Thursday for selling sensitive military information to China, according to reports.
The two California-based sailors were charged with similar moves to provide sensitive intelligence to the Chinese, including details on wartime exercises, naval operations, and critical technical material.
These were separate cases, however, and it was unclear whether the two were courted or paid by the same Chinese intelligence official as part of a wider operation. Federal officials declined to say whether the sailors were aware of each other’s actions during a news conference in San Diego.
Both men pleaded not guilty in federal courts in San Diego and Los Angeles. They were ordered to be held until their detention hearings on August 8 in the same cities.
This comes as China has been working hard to try to breach America’s secrets through espionage. U.S. officials have said that these cases exemplify the communist country’s brazenness in trying to obtain insight into American military operations.
“Through the alleged crimes committed by these defendants, sensitive military information ended up in the hands of the People’s Republic of China,” said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman for the Southern District of California, adding that the charges demonstrate the Chinese government’s “determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defense by any means, so it could be used to their advantage.”
Earlier this year, a Chinese high-altitude balloon was spotted flying over several sensitive American military sites. The Defense Department has since confirmed that it is collecting information.
Months after the incident, two current senior U.S. officials and one former White House official told NBC that the intelligence China collected mostly came from electronic signals.
The Pentagon has not confirmed which sites were compromised by the surveillance balloon, but important installations in the balloon’s path included Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, one of three bases that maintain and operate Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles; Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, the headquarters of US Strategic Command, which oversees America’s nuclear forces; and Joint Base Charleston in South Carolina, which hosts two nuclear submarine squadrons.
The balloon first entered U.S. airspace over Alaska on Jan. 28 and was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4.
