Asia-Pacific
US: two Chinese MSS agents sentenced to 30 months in prison; one photographed Naval Base Kitsap
A US federal court sentenced two Chinese nationals to 30 months in prison on October 30 for acting as agents of China’s Ministry of State Security, collecting information on US military facilities and personnel, the Justice Department said.
Two Chinese nationals who, according to the US Department of Justice, worked for China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), collecting information on American military facilities and personnel, were sentenced to 30 months in prison in the United States. Liren “Ryan” Lai, 40, and Yuance Chen, 39, will also spend three more years under supervision after their release. The sentence was imposed on Friday, October 30 by a federal court in the Northern District of California.
Both had pleaded guilty to conspiracy and acting as agents of a foreign government without prior notification to the Attorney General. Lai confessed in December 2025 and Chen in February.
Photographs of Kitsap base
According to court documents, the two men worked for the Chinese intelligence service from May 2021 at the latest. Lai recruited Chen and at first acted as intermediary between him and MSS officers, until Chen began taking orders directly. From 2022 Chen photographed Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington State, and recorded in photos and videos new recruits and active-duty sailors inside a Navy recruiting office in Southern California. He also collected personal details of a US Navy employee and detailed biographies of service members regarded as possible intelligence targets.
Cash in a locker and a “state secret”
In January 2022, while in China, the two coordinated the delivery of about $10,000 in a backpack, in a recreation-facility locker in Livermore, California, by the “dead drop” method. In March 2023 Lai brought Chen a phone for covert communication with the MSS, which Chen called a “state secret”. In May 2025 the Chinese service sent Lai to Phoenix for a new covert payment of about $20,000. The two were arrested on June 27, 2025 in an FBI operation.
“Their activity was extensive and brazen,” said John Eisenberg, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Roman Rozhavsky warned that anyone who endangers the security of American service members “will be found by justice”. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) also took part in the investigation.