Former CIA officer Admits to spying for China, according to DOJ

A former CIA officer, targeted in an FBI undercover operation, pleaded guilty on Friday to providing national defense information to the People’s Republic of China, according to the Justice Department.

Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 72, was arrested in 2020 and accused of spying for China for at least a decade.

The Justice Department alleged that he had given classified information to officers of China’s Ministry of State Security in 2001.

Originally from Hong Kong, Ma became a U.S. citizen in 1975 and joined the CIA in 1982, resigning in 1989.

Ma lived and worked in China before returning to Hawaii in 2001. He was hired as a contract linguist in the FBI’s Honolulu field office in 2004 as part of a "ruse" to monitor him and his Chinese contacts. Prosecutors stated that over the next six years, he consistently stole and copied classified documents.

He pled guilty to the charges, admitting to providing Chinese intelligence officials with information that could harm the U.S. The plea agreement proposes a 10-year sentence, pending the judge’s approval on September 11.