US army soldiers accused of selling military secrets to buyers in China

04:03 - 07/03/2025
World

Two US Army soldiers and a former soldier were arrested Thursday, accused in indictments of selling military secrets to buyers in China, according to the Department of Justice.

 

The two US Army active-duty soldiers were identified as Jian Zhao and Li Tian, stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, in Washington state. Zhao, a battery supply sergeant was assigned to the 17th Field Artillery Brigade and Tian is a health services administrator.

 

The former soldier, Ruoyu Duan of Hillsboro, Oregon, served in the Army from 2013 to 2017.

 

Tian and Duan were both charged with “conspiring to commit bribery and theft of government property.” Zhao faces the same charge and was also indicted for obtaining and transmitting “national defense information” to an “unnamed individual not authorized to receive it.”

 

According to an indictment filed Wednesday in the US District Court for Western Washington, Zhao, who managed over $55 million worth of army property, was accused of selling nearly two dozen classified hard drives marked “Secret” or “Top Secret,” as well as sensitive US military documents and information pertaining to High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to buyers in China, including one “co-conspirator” based in the city of Changchun.

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