San Francisco, with its nearby Silicon Valley, political importance in the Democratic Party, and large contingent of Chinese immigrants, is the centerpiece of operations in California for the MSS. According to US intelligence officials contacted by Politico, "if California is elevated among Chinese interests, San Francisco is like nirvana to the MSS, because of the potential to target community leaders and local politicians who may later become mayors, governors or congressmen."[1][7] Several suspected MSS officers have been identified operating out of the San Francisco consulate.[2]:169
In June 2021, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, among other organizations, was reported to have been targeted in cyber espionage hacks by a Chinese state-backed advanced persistent threat.[8] In July 2021, a federal grand jury in San Diego indicted four Chinese nationals working with the Hainan State Security Department under the hacking group APT40 who were alleged to conduct a cyber espionage campaign from 2011 to 2018.[9][10] In March 2024, the United States and United Kingdom jointly indicted and sanctioned members of the Hubei State Security Department for a wide range of cyber operations against critical infrastructure in the two countries, including attacks on a California managed service provider.[11][12]
In March 2008, an engineer for L3 Technologies in California, Chi Mak, was sentenced to 24 years for conspiring to send defense technology to China.[14][15]
In February 2010, a former Boeing and Rockwell International engineer in Southern California, Dongfan "Greg" Chung was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for espionage and other charges related passing technology secrets, including from the Space Shuttle program, to China.[18][19]
In September 2020, a former University of Southern California professor, Hao Zhang, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for conspiring to steal and sell smartphone signal technology to the Chinese military.[20][21][22]
In August 2023, a former U.S. Navy sailor assigned to the USS Essex in San Diego, Jinchao Wei, was indicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 for passing videos, photos, and manuals of naval weapon systems to a Chinese intelligence officer.[23] In August 2025, Wei was convicted.[24]
In January 2024, a former U.S. Navy sailor, Wenheng Zhao, was sentenced in federal court in Southern California to two years for transmitting details about U.S. military operations to a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for bribes.[25][26]
In December 2024, federal authorities arrested and charged a Chinese national, Yinpiao Zhou, for clandestinely flying a drone over Vandenberg Space Force Base to take photographs.[27][28]
In July 2025, the United States Department of Justice charged two Chinese nationals, Yuance Chen and Liren "Ryan" Lai, with attempting to recruit U.S. military personnel and gather naval intelligence for China's Ministry of State Security (MSS). According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Lai, who had ties to an MSS network, began cultivating Chen—then a legal U.S. resident—in 2021 due to his military contacts. The two met with MSS agents abroad and coordinated espionage efforts, including the use of a dead drop in 2022, where they left $10,000 in cash in a California locker to pay individuals for intelligence. Chen later toured the USS Abraham Lincoln in San Diego and collected personal details of Navy personnel, which were allegedly passed to Lai.[29][30] The Justice Department stated that the operation was part of a broader Chinese effort to expand its “blue-water” naval capabilities and undermine U.S. national security. Both men were charged under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), which requires individuals acting on behalf of foreign governments to register with U.S. authorities.[29]
In July 2025, a former engineer at a South California company, Chenguang Gong, pleaded guilty to stealing military tracking blueprints for the Chinese government.[31][32]
Political intelligence gathering
Dianne Feinstein
According to four former U.S. intelligence officials, in the 2000s, a staffer and Chinese community outreach liaison in Senator Dianne Feinstein’s San Francisco field office was providing political intelligence to the MSS.[33] The informant, who was not ultimately charged, was handled by officials working out of China's San Francisco Consulate.[1]
In December 2020, Swalwell was named in an Axios story about suspected Chinese spy Fang Fang or Christine Fang,[34][35][36] who had since at least 2012 been cultivating contacts with California politicians who the Chinese government believed had promising futures in politics.[37][38]Axios reported that Fang participated in fundraising for Swalwell's 2014 congressional election bid, met Swalwell at events, and helped place an intern inside his congressional office. Swalwell ended ties with Fang in 2015 after U.S. intelligence briefed him and top members of Congress on concerns that Chinese agents were attempting to infiltrate Congress. Axios reported that Swalwell was not accused of any impropriety and that officials did not believe that Fang obtained classified information from her contacts.[34]
Eileen Wang
In December 2024, the United States Department of Justice indicted an alleged Chinese spy who attempted to cultivate council member Eileen Wang of Arcadia, California.[39][4][40] The alleged spy is Wang's fiancé, Yaoning "Mike" Sun, with whom she has been together with since 2018.[41]
In the lead up to the 2008 Summer Olympics, San Francisco hosted a leg of the Olympic torch relay on its way to Beijing. According to three former U.S. intelligence officials, Chinese officials sought to disrupt any potential protest and maintain China's public image by sending MSS and Ministry of Public Security (MPS) officers to join suspected MSS officers embedded in the Bay Area. They reportedly bussed in 6,000–8,000 J-visa Chinese students and orchestrated the movements of counter-protesters, directing them to intimidate and disrupt protesters across the parade route and along the Embarcadero. The spies reportedly filmed Tibetan Buddhist monks on a march across the Golden Gate Bridge, surveilled a pro-Tibetan independence rally, recorded participants at a Falun Gong rally in Union Square as well as Uyghur and other pro-democracy protesters. According to Politico, one U.S. intelligence officer said, "I'm not sure they would have pulled out these stops in any other city, but San Francisco is special" to China.[1]
Tibet
In 2009, foreign agents of the PRC actively lobbied California legislators to defeat a resolution in support of human rights in Tibet. Several California legislators were briefed by the FBI about the monitoring of California politicians concerning the influence campaign as well as hacking attempts against relevant legislators.[42]
Falun Gong
In May 2023, two Los Angeles residents, John Chen and Lin Feng, were charged in federal court as unregistered foreign agents of the People's Republic of China who attempted to manipulate the whistleblower program of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) against Shen Yun, which is affiliated with Falun Gong, by filing a false complaint with the IRS aimed at stripping Shen Yun of its tax-exempt status. Both were later sentenced for bribing an IRS official to influence the IRS's handling of the complaint.[43][44][45]
1 2 Winton, Richard; Fry, Hannah (December 22, 2024). "Inside China's alleged spy scheme to influence governments in L.A. County and far beyond". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 22, 2024. Retrieved December 22, 2024. "They look to cultivate talent early — often state and local officials — to ensure that politicians at all levels of government will be ready to take a call and advocate on behalf of Beijing's agenda," FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said during a speech at the Reagan Presidential Library in 2022.
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