Yuance Chen与Liren Lai被控充当中国政府代理人 涉搜集美国海军人员与基地信息
2025年7月1日，美国司法部宣布，两名中国籍男子被控未事先通知美国司法部长即充当中国政府代理人，案件由位于加利福尼亚州的加州北区联邦检察官办公室起诉；指控所涉的一笔秘密现金交接，发生在加州阿拉米达县 Livermore 市。两人已于6月27日被联邦调查局逮捕，6月30日分别在俄勒冈州 Portland 市与德州 Houston 市的联邦法院首次出庭。
被告 Yuance Chen 现年38岁，是中国籍合法永久居民，住在俄勒冈州 Happy Valley 市；被告 Liren Lai 现年39岁，是中国籍人士，2025年4月持旅游签证来到 Houston。刑事诉状指控两人为中国政府主要的对外情报机构中国国家安全部监督并执行多项秘密情报任务，包括为一份已提供给该部的美国国家安全信息安排现金死信箱付款、搜集美国海军军人与基地的信息，以及协助从美国军人中招募潜在情报资产。
诉状称，Lai 约在2021年招募 Chen 为中国国家安全部工作。2022年1月，两人在中国广州共同安排一笔至少1万美元的死信箱付款，与在美国的其他人员协作，把装有现金的背包放进 Livermore 一处休闲设施的日用储物柜。死信箱是情报人员互不碰面即可传递金钱或信息的做法。
诉状还称，此后两人继续为中国国家安全部工作。2022年至2023年，Chen 受 Lai 指派前往华盛顿州一处海军设施与加州洛杉矶县 San Gabriel 市一处海军招募中心，在招募中心取得新兵个人信息并疑似传给在中国的中国国家安全部情报官员；Chen 还接受该部关于如何接触和招募未来水兵、如何降低暴露风险的指示，并通过社交媒体联系一名海军雇员、把该雇员的信息提供给该部。诉状称，Chen 曾于2024年4月与2025年3月前往广州，与该部情报官员会面，商谈报酬与具体任务。
诉状另称，Lai 2025年4月来到 Houston 时声称此行与其网店零售生意有关、只停留两周，但5月9日他与一名同伴驾车从 Houston 出发，经新墨西哥州与亚利桑那州 Tucson 市前往南加州，5月15日才返回德州。
司法部长 Pamela Bondi 说，此案凸显中国政府持续而积极地渗透美国军队、从内部削弱美国国家安全，司法部不会坐视敌对国家把间谍安插在美国。联邦调查局局长 Kash Patel 说，两人涉嫌代表中国为中国国家安全部招募美国军人。加州北区联邦检察官 Craig H. Missakian 说，这些指控反映外国对手针对美国的行动范围，这次是针对美国国家安全信息与军人的非法情报搜集。
两人被控违反《美国法典》第18编第951条，该条规定，未通知美国司法部长即在美国境内充当外国政府代理人属犯罪；如罪名成立，每人最高可判10年监禁并处罚款25万美元。此案由联邦调查局旧金山分局主导调查，Portland、Houston 与圣迭戈分局及海军刑事调查局协助；加州北区联邦检察官办公室国家安全与特别检控组与司法部国家安全司反情报与出口管制组负责起诉。刑事诉状仅为指控，两名被告在被证明有罪之前推定无罪。
关联：各判30个月监禁：两名中国籍男子 Liren Lai 与 Yuance Chen 充当中国政府代理人被判刑，曾搜集美军人员与基地信息
（来源：美国司法部）
Yuance Chen and Liren Lai Charged with Acting as Agents of the Chinese Government
On July 1, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that two nationals of China had been charged with acting as agents of the Government of China without prior notification to the Attorney General, in a case charged out of the Northern District of California; one alleged secret cash handoff in the case took place in Livermore, a city in Alameda County, California. The two men were arrested by the FBI on June 27 and made their initial appearances on June 30 in federal court in Portland, Oregon, and Houston, Texas.
Yuance Chen, 38, is a national of China and a legal permanent resident who resides in Happy Valley, Oregon. Liren Lai, 39, is a national of China who traveled to Houston, Texas, on a tourist visa in April 2025. A criminal complaint charges them with overseeing and carrying out clandestine intelligence taskings in the United States on behalf of the Ministry of State Security (MSS), China's principal foreign intelligence service. Those taskings included facilitating a dead drop payment of cash for information relating to the national security of the United States previously provided to the MSS, gathering intelligence about U.S. Navy service members and bases, and assisting with efforts to recruit other individuals from within the U.S. military as potential MSS assets.
As alleged in the complaint, Lai recruited Chen to work on behalf of the MSS in or about 2021. While in Guangzhou, China, in January 2022, the two worked together to facilitate a dead-drop payment of at least $10,000 on behalf of the MSS, working with other individuals in the United States to leave a backpack with the cash at a day-use locker at a recreational facility in Livermore, California. A dead drop is a method intelligence operatives use to pass money or information without meeting the recipient.
The complaint also alleges that the two continued to work on behalf of the MSS. In 2022 and 2023, Chen was tasked by Lai to visit a U.S. Naval installation in Washington State and a U.S. Navy recruitment center in San Gabriel, a city in Los Angeles County, California. While in the recruitment center, Chen obtained personal information for recruits that he appears to have transmitted to an MSS intelligence officer in China. The complaint alleges that Chen received instruction from the MSS on how to engage and recruit future Sailors and on methods for minimizing his risk of exposure, that he began contacting a Navy employee over social media and provided information about the employee to the MSS, and that he traveled to Guangzhou and met with MSS intelligence officers in April 2024 and March 2025 to discuss compensation and specific taskings.
The complaint further alleges that Lai traveled to Houston in April 2025 claiming the purpose of his visit was related to his business as an online retail seller and that he would stay for two weeks, but that on May 9, 2025, he traveled by car with a companion from Houston to Southern California, via New Mexico and Tucson, Arizona, before returning to Texas on May 15, 2025.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi said the case underscores the Chinese government's sustained and aggressive effort to infiltrate the U.S. military and undermine U.S. national security from within, and that the Justice Department will not stand by while hostile nations embed spies in this country. FBI Director Kash Patel said the two men were allegedly attempting to recruit U.S. military service members on behalf of China. U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian for the Northern District of California said the charges reflect the breadth of efforts by foreign adversaries to target the United States, this time through illegal intelligence-gathering operations aimed at national security information and military service members.
Chen and Lai are charged with violating Title 18, United States Code, Section 951, which makes it a crime to operate in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without notification to the Attorney General. If convicted, each faces a fine of up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison. The FBI San Francisco Field Office is leading the investigation, with assistance from the FBI Portland, Houston and San Diego Field Offices and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The prosecution is being handled by the National Security and Special Prosecutions Section of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California and the National Security Division's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section. A criminal complaint is merely an allegation, and both defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
来源：美国司法部
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：位于加州旧金山的 Phillip Burton 联邦大楼与美国法院大楼外墙及楼名牌，加州北区联邦地区法院所在地，本案由加州北区联邦检察官办公室起诉。Sam Wheeler 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons（本站按 16:9 裁取含楼名牌的画面）。 / Photo: The facade and name plaque of the Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Courthouse in San Francisco, California, home of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California; this case was charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California. Photo by Sam Wheeler, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped to 16:9 around the name plaque.
GSM Global · 本篇英文版 English edition of this story
- 2025-07-01 08:25Yuance Chen与Liren Lai被控充当中国政府代理人 涉搜集美国海军人员与基地信息本篇
- 2026-10-30 14:17各判30个月监禁：两名中国籍男子 Liren Lai 与 Yuance Chen 充当中国政府代理人被判刑，曾搜集美军人员与基地信息
