Two current U.S. Army soldiers, and one former soldier, were arrested this week and charged with conspiring to obtain and sell secret government information to China.
According to an indictment filed Wednesday with the U.S. District Court of Oregon, health services administrator 1st Lt. Li Tian conspired with former servicemember Ruoyu Duan to obtain information about U.S. military operations.
The indictment says Lt. Tian gathered information on military tactics and technology, before passing along the information to Mr. Duan in exchange for money. The information dealt with Army technical manuals and armored vehicles like the Bradley and Stryker.
The DOJ says the conspiracy went on for years, with Lt. Tian illegally passing on information from November 2021 to December 2024. Lt. Tian and Mr. Duan have been charged with theft of government property, conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and bribery of a public official.
“The FBI and our partners will continue to work to uncover attempts by those in China to steal sensitive U.S. military information and hold all accountable who play a role in betraying our national defense,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote of the arrests.
In a separate indictment on Wednesday, a supply sergeant for the 17th Field Artillery Brigade, Sgt. Jian Zhao, was charged with stealing government hard drives and selling them to buyers based in China. From July 2024, Sgt. Zhao sold nearly two dozen hard drives marked “SECRET” or “TOP SECRET,” bringing in just over $15,000.
Both Lt. Tian and Sgt. Zhao were stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington. Mr. Duan served in the U.S. Army from 2013 to 2017 and currently resides in Oregon.
The DOJ says that Sgt. Zhao passed along technical information about U.S. rocket systems and military procedures in the event of a kinetic war with China. The specific information allegedly sold by Sgt. Zhao was not revealed in the indictment. Sgt. Zhao’s co-conspirators in China went unnamed in the indictment. Sgt. Zhao has been charged with conspiracy to gather national defense information, bribery of a public official and theft of government property.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the arrests Thursday, promising swift prosecution.
“The defendants arrested today are accused of betraying our country, actively working to weaken America’s defense capabilities and empowering our adversaries in China,” she wrote. “They will face swift, severe and comprehensive justice.”
