Chinese Students Charged for Photographing U.S. Naval Installations By Zachary Evans
Chinese Students Charged for Photographing U.S. Naval Installations
Two Chinese students were charged in federal court in Florida on Monday with entering a U.S. naval installation and taking pictures, the Miami Herald reported.
Yuhao Wang and Jielun Zhang, both 24-year-old University of Michigan students, were arrested on Saturday at the Sigsbee Annex in the Naval Air Station in Key West, Fla. The two drove into the annex after ignoring a guard’s orders to turn back and were apprehended a half hour later. They had cell phones and a camera inside the base.
“U.S. Navy Security Forces obtained consent to look at the devices and observed photographs taken on the Sigsbee Annex property, including U.S. military structures on Fleming Key,” the FBI wrote in its affidavit for the case.
Both students voluntarily showed agents the pictures they had taken, and Wang admitted they had driven into the base against the orders of the guard.
A similar incident took place on December 26, when Chinese national Lyuyou Liao was arrested in the Truman Annex of the Naval Air Station. Liao said he was “trying to take photographs of the sunrise” from the property, and he willingly provided the passcode for his phone to a federal agent. The agent found Liao had taken photos of the facilities in the Truman Annex.
Yet another Chinese national, Zhao Qianli, was arrested in September for taking photographs at the Naval Air Station. Qianli, who claimed to be a music student, was sentenced to one year in prison for trespassing and photographing the base.
The news comes amidst rising U.S.–China tensions. In December, the New York Times reported that two Chinese diplomatic staffers had been expelled from the U.S. after driving into a Virginia base that houses the headquarters of SEAL Team 6. One of the individuals was allegedly an intelligence officer using diplomatic cover.
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