A former CIA officer, Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for providing classified U.S. national defense information to China. Ma, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Hong Kong, was arrested in August 2020 and pleaded guilty to conspiring with China to gather and deliver national defense information. The agreed-upon sentence was imposed by Chief U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson in Honolulu on September 11.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawaii Clare E. Connors stated that despite Ma’s sworn oath to protect classified secrets, he chose to betray his country for money while aiding the People’s Republic of China.
Ma had worked for the CIA from 1982 until 1989 and held a top-secret security clearance during his tenure at the agency. After leaving the CIA, he lived and worked in Shanghai before returning to Hawaii in 2001.
According to court documents, Ma became a compromised asset of the Chinese Ministry of State Security by early 2001. At their request, he arranged a meeting between Chinese intelligence officers and his older brother, who also worked for the CIA at that time.
During this meeting, Ma’s brother handed over a large volume of classified U.S. national defense information in exchange for $50,000 and continued assistance from Chinese intelligence.
After applying for a job as a contract linguist with the FBI’s field office in Honolulu in 2003, it was discovered that Ma had ties to Chinese intelligence. The FBI enlisted him as an informant but later found out that he regularly stole classified documents over six years while working there.
Ma’s cooperation with the U.S government is required under the terms of his plea agreement for life-long polygraph tests.
The case against Ma is part of several recent crackdowns on Chinese espionage by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Other notable cases include Jerry Chun Shing Lee sentenced to 19 years imprisonment and Ron Rockwell Hansen sentenced to ten years imprisonment both involved espionage conspiracy with China.
