A US Navy petty officer was sentenced Monday to 27 months in prison for spying for China’s military intelligence agency, the federal Justice Department announced.

Wenheng Zhao, 26, who served at the Ventura County Naval Base, northwest of Los Angeles, was arrested in California (west) in August. In October, he pleaded guilty to a charge of selling sensitive information to an agent of China’s military intelligence agency.

He was also fined $5,500, the Justice Department said in a press release.

“The People’s Republic of China has engaged in an aggressive effort to undermine the national security of the United States and its partners,” Larissa Knapp, acting deputy director of the FBI’s national security division, said in the statement.

Whistleblower Wenheng Zhao confessed to receiving nearly $15,000 between August 2021 and May 2023 from a Chinese agent in exchange for sensitive information related to “the operational security, military training, and critical infrastructure of the US Navy,” according to the announcement.

Among other things, the non-commissioned officer admitted to handing over to the Chinese agent documents related to a major military exercise in the Pacific Ocean, as well as the electrical, mechanical and other plans of a radar system installed on the island of Okinawa, Japan.