MSS Agents Get 30 Months for Navy Targeting and Dead-Drop Operation

A federal judge sentenced Liren “Ryan” Lai and Yuance Chen to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release after both pleaded guilty to conspiring to act, and acting, as unregistered foreign agents. The Justice Department said the two men agreed to work under the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security.

The operation included a January 2022 dead drop in Livermore, California. Prosecutors said Lai and Chen coordinated from China with people in the United States to leave about $10,000 in a backpack inside a locker at a recreational facility.

Chen gathered photographs of Naval Base Kitsap in Washington and images of recruits and active-duty sailors at a Southern California Navy recruiting station, according to the Justice Department. He also collected personal information about a Navy employee and kept biographies of military personnel viewed as possible intelligence targets.

Lai delivered a phone for covert MSS communications in March 2023. Chen later met intelligence officers in China in 2024 and 2025, while Lai returned to the United States in 2025 and received an assignment to facilitate another cash transfer of about $20,000 in Phoenix.

U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar imposed the sentences after Lai pleaded guilty in December 2025 and Chen pleaded guilty in February 2026. The FBI arrested both men in June 2025.

Lawyers for both men did not respond to Courthouse News Service’s requests for comment after sentencing. At a July 2025 detention hearing, before Lai’s guilty plea, his lawyer Kent Schaffer rejected the spy label and said prosecutors had not shown Lai transmitting information. China’s foreign ministry said at the charging stage that it did not know the case details and opposed what it called hype about Chinese spies.