DOJ Charges Two Chinese Nationals Acting as Agents of PRC Government

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged two Chinese nationals for acting as agents to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), it announced on Tuesday.

According to the department, the two charged — Yuance Chen, a Chinese national, and Liren “Ryan” Lai, a legal permanent resident — were allegedly tasked with collecting intelligence related to U.S. Navy service members and military bases. Both are accused of working with MSS, which “handles civilian intelligence collection for the PRC,” per the DOJ.

The FBI arrested them on June 27, 2025, on a criminal complaint “charging them with overseeing and carrying out various clandestine intelligence taskings in the United States on behalf of the PRC Government’s principal foreign intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security (MSS),” according to a press release from the DOJ, which described some of the activities. These 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.”

FBI Director Kash Patel added greater perspective, explaining in a statement that these two were “allegedly attempting to recruit U.S. military service members on behalf of the PRC.”

“The Chinese Communist Party thought they were getting away with their scheme to operate on U.S. soil, utilizing spy craft, like dead drops, to pay their sources,” he said, describing the case as a “complex, coordinated effort” and an “example of outstanding counterintelligence work done by FBI San Francisco, Portland, Houston, San Diego, and the Counterintelligence Division.”

“The FBI will continue to vigilantly defend the homeland from China’s pervasive attempts to infiltrate our borders,” Patel vowed.

Attorney General Pam Bondi added that this “underscores the Chinese government’s sustained and aggressive effort to infiltrate our military and undermine our national security from within.” She also assured that the DOJ is on guard, prepared to take action and “expose foreign operatives, hold their agents to account, and protect the American people from covert threats to our national security.”

Last month, officials announced the arrest of a Chinese alien, charged with smuggling biological materials into the U.S. and making false statements. Patel noted at the time that this individual stood as the third “PRC connected individual charged on similar allegations in recent days.”

In October five Chinese nationals were indicted on federal charges “for conspiracy, lying to federal investigators, and destroying records pertaining to their strange midnight visit to a Michigan Army National Guard base in August 2023,” as Breitbart News detailed.