It however remains unclear if the same Chinese agent contacted both Navy officers.
Two US sailors have been arrested on charges of sharing sensitive information with Chinese intelligence officers, media reports said.
According to a statement released on Thursday by the US Attorney for the Southern District of California, one of the sailors, Jinchao Wei, was arrested on Wednesday as he arrived for work at Naval Base San Diego — one of the largest Navy installations in the Pacific, reports CNN.
The 22-year-old naturalised US citizen is accused of conspiring to send national defence information to a Chinese agent, a BBC report said.
Meanwhile, 26-year-old Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao who worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, California, was arrested also on Wednesday on charges of accepting money for sensitive photos and videos.
It however remains unclear if the same Chinese agent is alleged to have contacted the pair.
The indictment against Wei was unsealed on Thursday and is separate from the charges against Zhao.
« The charges demonstrate the (People’s Republic of China’s) determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defense by any means, so it can be used to their advantage, » CNN quoted Matt Olson, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for national security, as saying at a news conference on Thursday.
