Two Chinese nationals who admitted working for Beijing’s Ministry of State Security on American soil were each sentenced to 30 months in federal prison, the Justice Department announced Friday. Liren “Ryan” Lai, 40, and Yuance Chen, 39, also received three years of supervised release.
What the Justice Department says they did
According to the department’s October 30 press release, Lai and Chen acted as agents of the Ministry of State Security (MSS), China’s civilian intelligence service, “no later than May 2021.” Lai recruited Chen and first served as the go-between with MSS officers. Chen later took assignments directly from them.
The release lists several specific acts:
- In January 2022, the pair arranged a clandestine cash payment of about $10,000. While they were in China, they coordinated with people in the United States to leave a backpack of cash in a locker at a recreational facility in Livermore, California.
- Beginning in 2022, Chen gathered information on military installations and personnel. That included photographs of Navy Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington, and photos and video of military recruits and active-duty sailors inside a Navy recruiting station in Southern California. He also collected personal identifying information on a Navy employee and kept biographical files on potential military targets.
- In March 2023, Lai traveled to the United States and gave Chen a cell phone for covert communication with the MSS.
- In 2024 and 2025, Chen traveled to China and met MSS officers, who gave him more assignments involving U.S. service members.
- In April 2025, Lai traveled from China to the United States. The next month the MSS directed him to go to Phoenix to “facilitate another clandestine cash payment of approximately $20,000,” the release says.
The department describes such arrangements as “dead drops,” which let intelligence operatives pass money or information without meeting the recipient.
Arrest, charges and pleas
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested both men on June 27, 2025, in what the department called a coordinated counterintelligence operation. A federal grand jury in the Northern District of California indicted them on July 1, 2025. Each was charged with two counts: conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General, and acting as one.
Lai pleaded guilty to both counts on December 12, 2025. The release says Chen pleaded guilty on February 20 but gives no year for that date.
John A. Eisenberg, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said the pair’s activities, “undertaken at the direction of the PRC [People’s Republic of China], were extensive and brazen.” Roman Rozhavsky, the FBI’s assistant director for counterintelligence and espionage, said: “By their own admission, Chen and Lai operated as illegal agents for the Chinese government on U.S. soil.”
The FBI’s San Francisco field office led the investigation, with help from FBI offices in Portland, Houston and San Diego and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
Where reports differ, and what is not known
Al Jazeera’s account of the sentencing says the first dead-drop payment came in May 2022. The Justice Department’s release says January 2022. This article uses the department’s date, since it is the primary document. Al Jazeera also describes a “later” $20,000 payment. The department’s wording is narrower: it says the MSS directed Lai to Phoenix to facilitate a payment, and it does not say in the text reviewed whether the payment was completed.
Several things are not established in the sources reviewed. The release does not name the sentencing judge. It does not say how many service members, if any, were actually recruited, or what information reached the MSS. It reports no immigration status for either man. Neither Al Jazeera’s report nor the release carries a response from the Chinese government. Right Side News did not find a defense statement.
Whether the case reflects a wider network is speculation, not a finding in either source. The department’s release describes only these two defendants and the people in the United States who helped with the cash drops.
Why it matters
The case is documented in a Justice Department release and rests on guilty pleas, not allegations alone. It shows an intelligence service using intermediaries in the United States to build files on Navy facilities and sailors, and to move cash without face-to-face contact.
Whether either man faces removal from the United States after release is not addressed in the release. That is a question for the court record.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, “Two Men Sentenced for Acting as Agents of the People’s Republic of China,” October 30, 2026: justice.gov
- Al Jazeera, “US jails two Chinese nationals for spying,” October 31, 2026: aljazeera.com
- Image: U.S. Navy photograph of the submarine USS Nebraska at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, Washington, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain, U.S. federal government work). File photo; it is not from the case.
How this article was made: Right Side News researched and drafted this article with the help of AI tools. Sources are linked so readers can check them. Spot an error? Tell us in the comments and we will correct it.