Chinese student sentenced to a year in prison for taking photos of naval base

A 20-year-old Chinese student was sentenced to a year in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to illegally taking pictures at a key US defense intelligence facility in Florida.

A federal judge gave Zhao Qianli the maximum sentence after his guilty plea on Tuesday of one count of photographing defense installations.

Zhao's attorney, Hongwei Shang, declined comment to CNN when reached by phone Wednesday evening.

US intelligence warns China is using student spies to steal secrets

According to court documents, Zhao entered the Joint Interagency Task Force South military property, located on Naval Air Station Key West, on September 26 without permission "by circumnavigating the installation's primary fence line, and entering the military property from the beach."

"The primary installation fence line contained multiple signs that stated the Farm area was a 'RESTRICTED AREA' and the 'KEEP OUT'."

A US Navy video calls the Key West facility "one of the leading intelligence fusion centers in the world."

It tracks more than 1,000 suspect targets a day, the Navy says, turning intelligence images into virtual reality programs.

The center monitors more than 42 million square miles of the Earth's surface to detect threats to US security, including narcotics shipments from the Americas, according to the video.

Personnel from all five branches of the US military plus representatives from 13 other nations work at the facility.

Zhao was in the United States to study musicology as part of a summer exchange program from North University of China, according to CNN affiliate WFOR.

Word of Zhao's sentence comes as China is engaged in a persistent, aggressive effort to undermine American industries, steal American secrets and eventually diminish American influence in the world so that Beijing can advance its own agenda, US officials, analysts and experts told CNN in a report last week.

Roughly 350,000 people from China study in the US every year, experts say.

Current and former intelligence officials told CNN that they all remain tethered to the Chinese government in some way, even if the vast majority aren't sent to the US to spy.

"There is no comparison to the breadth and scope of the Chinese threat facing America today, as they actively seek to supplant the US globally," Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida told CNN.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net