There was a time in America’s history when acts of treason and espionage were punished properly. In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union under the Espionage Act of 1917. They were executed in 1953.
Today, China is at war with the U.S. Beijing is rapidly building up its conventional military capabilities while conducting an all-encompassing unrestricted warfare campaign against the U.S. and its allies. The U.S. is estimated to lose hundreds of billions of dollars annually due to intellectual property theft and industrial espionage. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses this sensitive information to enrich its military. This is precisely why Washington can’t afford to go soft on traitors.
The People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) overshadows the Soviet Union’s KGB and East Germany’s Stasi at their peak. The MSS has been actively recruiting Americans — federal government employees, military personnel, academics, researchers, and others — via job listings and social media. Financial incentives are often used to lure in individuals.
There are numerous examples of Americans aiding and abetting the CCP.
Earlier this month, Seth Chambers, a former U.S. Marine Corps. intelligence analyst with top security clearance, was arrested for sharing classified documents with two unauthorized individuals, including one residing in China.
In 2025, Michael Schena, a former Department of State employee, and John Harold Rogers, a former senior advisor for the Federal Reserve, were indicted. Schena had provided dozens of defense documents to Chinese state actors since 2022 for anywhere between $13,000 and $37,000, while Rogers shared trade secrets with Chinese nationals connected to the MSS. Rogers later accepted a faculty position at Fudan University in Shanghai.
In 2024, Korbein Schultz, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst, was taken into custody for providing dozens of classified military documents between 2022 and 2024 to a Chinese national living in China in exchange for about $42,000. Schultz also attempted to recruit his friend, an Army intelligence analyst for the United States Indo-Pacific Command.
In 2023, Jinchao Wei, a former U.S. Navy sailor, was arrested for selling national defense information — classified documents, designs, and operating manuals — to an MSS agent for $12,000.
These individuals have something else in common besides aiding America’s top adversary: lenient sentences.
Chambers faces two counts of up to ten years in federal prison. Schena, Schultz, and Wei received 48, 84, and 200 months in prison, respectively. And Rogers was convicted of a lesser charge of lying to investigators but acquitted of economic espionage conspiracy charges.
Treason is the most serious federal crime, given that it threatens the state’s security and endangers citizens, and must be treated as such. It’s no surprise that the death penalty is provided as a punishment for this offense.
Deterrence is another reason to punish acts of treason to the fullest extent of the law. Lenient sentences signal weakness to our adversaries and their proxies while these malign actors baselessly accuse individuals of spying on behalf of the U.S. and sentence them to death. Deterrence only works when the consequences are clear and severe enough to make anyone think twice about taking part in subversive activities targeting America.
The same standards need to be applied to foreign nationals in the U.S. who engage in espionage and who recruit Americans to do their bidding.
The scourge of treason, an offense that directly threatens our homeland security and defenses, in this country demands a swift and uncompromising response. If this crime continues to be treated leniently, it will erode our republic from within and ultimately lead to its downfall.
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