Two Chinese men admitted to trying to recruit U.S. military service members to spy for Beijing and were imprisoned in California on Friday, October 30, 2026. Liren Lai and Yuance Chen were ordered to serve 30 months in a federal lockup and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to acting on the orders of China's Ministry of State Security. The sentencing took place in Los Angeles, United States.
The U.S. Department of Justice stated that the two men carried out clandestine intelligence activities within the United States. These activities involved facilitating dead drop cash payments in exchange for U.S. national security information, gathering details on U.S. military personnel and installations, and attempting to recruit intelligence assets within the military. Lai entered the U.S. on a tourist visa and recruited Chen, a permanent resident, into the operation. Lai initially acted as an intermediary before Chen began receiving orders directly from his handler. Both individuals had been working since at least May 2021 for the branch of the Chinese government responsible for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence operations, and they were arrested in June 2025.
Following their arrests, both men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government without prior notification to the Attorney General, as well as acting as agents of a foreign government without prior notification. Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, issued a warning regarding the sentencing, emphasizing that justice will find those who attempt to jeopardize the safety and security of service members, citizens, or the nation.
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