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US jails two Chinese nationals for spying

Liren Lai and Yuance Chen admitted to facilitating ‘dead drop’ cash payments worth at least $30,000 to people in the US.

Al JazeeraAl Jazeera Staff2026-10-31 04:41查看原文 ↗

Liren Lai and Yuance Chen admitted to facilitating ‘dead drop’ cash payments worth at least $30,000 to people in the US.

The US Department of Justice has sentenced two Chinese nationals to 30 months in prison for spying on the US [File: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters]

Two Chinese nationals have been jailed in the United States after admitting to trying to recruit US military service members to spy for Beijing.

Liren “Ryan” Lai, 40, and Yuance Chen, 39, were each sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement on Friday.

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The men sought to arrange “dead drop” cash payments in exchange for information related to US national security, the statement also said.

The pair operated a “long-running”, “extensive” and “brazen” scheme to undermine US national security and support Chinese intelligence operations and recruitment in the US, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A Eisenberg said.

According to court documents, Lai and Chen began acting as agents of China’s foreign intelligence arm, the Ministry of State Security, no later than May 2021.

Lai, who arrived in the US on a tourist visa, recruited Chen, a permanent resident, into the scheme and initially served as an intermediary between Chen and intelligence officers – until Chen was able to receive his orders directly from his handler.

In May 2022, they facilitated a secret cash payment of $10,000 from China, ordering US-based individuals to drop the cash at a specified location for collection by someone else, an arrangement known as a “dead drop”.

The two later carried out another similar operation, facilitating a payment of $20,000.

Chen and Lai also engaged in other forms of espionage, including obtaining photographs of a naval facility, military recruits, and active-duty sailors. Chen collected personal information about a US Navy employee and maintained detailed biographical information about military personnel who were potential intelligence targets.

The DOJ did not say how many times the pair had facilitated payments, nor how many people they had successfully recruited in the US.

The men were found guilty of two charges: conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government without prior notification to the Attorney General; and acting as agents of a foreign government without prior notification.

Both pleaded guilty in court.

The pair were arrested and charged in June 2025.

In late August, US President Donald Trump said he knew China spied on the US, but “we spy on them too”.

In June, China announced that it had arrested a US citizen accused of espionage a day after US media reports said a scholar holding dual US and Myanmar citizenship was detained in early June.

The scholar, Min Zin, previously wrote opinion pieces on Myanmar politics that were critical of the military government, as well as the opposition groups it is fighting.

赖立仁和陈元安承认协助向美国人士进行价值至少 3 万美元的“死信箱”现金支付。

美国司法部判处两名中国公民30个月监禁，罪名是从事间谍活动。[图片：伊丽莎白·弗兰茨/路透社]

两名中国公民承认试图招募美国军人为北京从事间谍活动，已在美国被判入狱。

美国司法部周五发表声明称，40岁的赖立仁（Liren “Ryan” Lai）和39岁的陈元安（Yuance Chen）分别被判处30个月监禁和3年监管释放。

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声明还称，这些人试图安排“死信箱”现金支付，以换取与美国国家安全有关的信息。

美国国家安全助理司法部长约翰·A·艾森伯格表示，这对男女实施了一项“长期”、“广泛”且“厚颜无耻”的计划，旨在破坏美国国家安全，并支持中国在美国的情报活动和招募工作。

根据法庭文件，赖和陈最迟于 2021 年 5 月开始担任中国对外情报机构——国家安全部的特工。

赖某持旅游签证来到美国，招募了永久居民陈某加入该计划，最初担任陈某与情报官员之间的中间人——直到陈某能够直接从他的上级那里接收命令。

2022 年 5 月，他们促成了一笔来自中国的 10,000 美元的秘密现金支付，命令美国境内的个人将现金送到指定地点，由其他人收取，这种安排被称为“死信箱”。