Three Chinese nationals were sentenced to prison after they illegally entered a restricted area at a US Navy base in Florida and took pictures, the Associated Press reported Friday.
Chinese national Liao Lyuyou, 27, pleaded guilty to illegally entering the Naval Air Station Key West on Dec. 26 and taking photographs and video of property, according to the U.S. Attorney’s vOffice of the South District of Florida, the Associated Press reported. Lyuyou was sentenced to 12 months in prison.
Jielun Zhang, 25, and Yuhao Wang, 24, illegally entered the same naval air station Jan. 4 and were sentenced to 12 months and 9 months in prison, respectively, for taking photographs of property. Additionally, all three were ordered to serve one year of probation.
Liao was verbally warned not to enter the restricted area but did anyway, taking pictures of an annex and government buildings near sensitive military facilities, according to CNN.
He circumvented a security fence that had multiple warnings on it and walked into restricted areas, later telling officials that he reads and understands English better than he can speak it. He also told officials that he was trying to take photos of the sunrise. When military police looked through his camera, they saw images of the Truman Annex and photos of other government buildings, CNN reported. (RELATED: US Ramps Up Crackdown On China’s Spying Efforts During Coronavirus)
Jielun and Yuhao arrived a week later at the guard station, and did not obey the security officer’s orders when they were told to leave the facility after not being able to provide military identification.
The two instead stayed at the premises for roughly 30 minutes. With proper consent, officers searched their cell phones and cameras and found pictures of US military structures.
The expulsions appear to be the first of Chinese diplomats suspected of espionage in more than 30 years. https://t.co/XOMEDyaBMm
— Caitlin Yilek (@hausofcait) December 15, 2019
The U.S. government “secretly expelled” two Chinese Embassy officials in September 2019 after they drove onto a restricted military base in Virginia, and were suspected of espionage. American officials believe at least one of the Chinese officials was an intelligence officer, according to the New York Times.