A former CIA officer, Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, pleaded guilty on Friday to charges of spying for China, as announced by the US Department of Justice.
Yuk Ching Ma, a 71-year-old Hong Kong native who later became a naturalized US citizen, confessed to providing a significant amount of classified US national defense information to Chinese authorities in 2001, despite not being employed by the CIA for 12 years.
The Justice Department revealed that Yuk Ching Ma’s meeting with representatives from the Shanghai State Security Bureau was initiated by another former CIA agent, identified as “co-conspirator #1,” who shares a blood relation with Yuk Ching Ma and was also born in Shanghai.
During the meeting in a Hong Kong hotel, Chinese intelligence officers provided Yuk Ching Ma’s relative with $50,000 in cash. Yuk Ching Ma acknowledged his agreement to continue assisting Chinese intelligence.
In 2003, Yuk Ching Ma was employed as a linguist by the FBI in Hawaii, with his activities monitored as part of an investigative plan to probe his contacts with China.
In 2006, Yuk Ching Ma persuaded his relative to provide identities of individuals depicted in photographs provided by Chinese intelligence.
Yuk Ching Ma admitted that the information he provided was intended to harm the United States or benefit Chinese authorities.
Yuk Ching Ma worked for the FBI until 2012, and details on his unmasking remain undisclosed.
The guilty plea agreement, subject to court acceptance, entails Yuk Ching Ma’s cooperation with US authorities and carries a possible 10-year prison sentence, scheduled for September 11.
