Ex-U.S. Army Soldier Admits Plot To Provide China With Sensitive Military Intel

An ex-Army Sergeant faces up to ten years in prison after he pleaded guilty to attempting to give American military secrets to China. 

Joseph Daniel Schmidt, 31, last stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, pled guilty on Wednesday to charges of attempting to deliver national defense information and retention of national defense information. He will be sentenced in September by U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour. In addition to prison, Schmidt could be hit with a $250,000 fine. 

Schmidt was an active duty soldier from January 2015 to January 2020 and mainly worked with the 109th Military Intelligence Battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. During his military service, he had access to information designated as secret and top secret, according to the Justice Department. 

After leaving the military in January 2020, Schmidt emailed the Chinese Consulate in Turkey and the Chinese security service, offering to provide them with national defense information. 

In March 2020, Schmidt flew to Hong Kong, where he attempted to give Chinese security officials intelligence he had kept from his time in the military. According to the Justice Department, he produced multiple documents detailing the “high level secrets” he had in his possession and offered to give a device that allows access to secure military computers to the Chinese. 

He flew back to the United States in October 2023 when he was arrested in San Francisco. 

“Joseph Daniel Schmidt was once a trusted guardian of our nation’s secrets and swore an oath to defend and protect U.S. national security,” Assistant Director Suzanne Turner of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division said in October 2023 when Schmidt was indicted. “As alleged by the government, Schmidt betrayed his promise and potentially placed our nation at risk in his attempts to pass national defense information to Chinese security services.”

In recent years, the FBI has made a number of arrests involving former American soldiers accused of attempting to give sensitive military information to China. 

Earlier this year, former Army intelligence officer Korbein Schultz was sentenced to seven years in prison for selling critical military documents to an individual believed to be tied to the Chinese government. Schultz was paid $42,000 for information on American military exercises and technical equipment manuals.

Just last month, the Justice Department announced that Jian Zhao and Li Tian, both active duty Army soldiers also stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and former soldier Ruoyu Duan had been charged with stealing U.S. military secrets. They were accused of taking top-secret hard drives, information on weapon systems, and documents on missile defenses to sell to individuals based in China.