A federal court has sentenced Liren “Ryan” Lai and Yuance Chen to 30 months in prison each for acting as undeclared agents of China and conspiring to do so.
Both men had pleaded guilty. The Justice Department said they operated under the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security, helping arrange secret cash transfers and collecting information about US military personnel and facilities. Their conduct included a roughly $10,000 cash dead drop in California, photographs of Naval Base Kitsap and images of recruits and sailors at a Southern California recruiting station.
Chen also maintained biographical information about military personnel viewed as possible intelligence targets. In 2025, prosecutors said, the MSS directed Lai to travel to Phoenix to facilitate another covert payment, this time for about $20,000.
The two were arrested in June 2025 and later admitted conspiracy and substantive foreign-agent offences. Each sentence includes three years of supervised release. The convictions concern unregistered foreign-government activity; the announcement does not describe convictions for espionage.
The official October 30 sentencing account gives the procedural history.
