A Chinese citizen faces up to 20 years in US federal prison after pleading guilty on Monday to attempting to purchase US-made military equipment to export to China, in violation of US arms export controls, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
Chen Dingwei, 29, was charged with attempting to purchase military-grade satellite modems and radios manufactured for the US military by US companies, which are barred from being exported to China under the US Arms Export Control Act.
US District Judge David Sam accepted Chen’s guilty plea in a federal court in Salt Lake City, Utah, and scheduled sentencing for October 19.
In a statement, the DOJ accused Chen of attempting to divert sensitive US military technologies to China, which could have been used against the US in the future.
“These advanced technologies are a product of United States ingenuity and investment,” said John A. Eisenberg, US Assistant Attorney General for National Security.
“Advanced communication systems – such as those increasingly sought after by adversaries for their sophisticated capabilities – are essential to protecting our warfighters and ensuring they can operate safely and decisively across modern battlespaces,” said James R. Ives, director of the Pentagon’s Defence Criminal Investigative Service, which led the investigation along with the Department of Homeland Security.
According to court records, between March and October last year, Chen and unnamed China-based co-conspirators tried to acquire export-controlled communications systems made by US companies L3Harris, Viasat and Comtech from foreign arms dealers on the black market.
They contacted a Switzerland-based “armourer” with a US-based subsidiary and discussed ways to smuggle the goods back to China through Saipan, capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Mexico.
The conspirators paid an initial down payment of over US$40,000 for the 10 modems, then switched to using cryptocurrency to avoid detection, paying around US$30,000 worth of the stablecoin USDT, which El Salvador-based Tether issues.
Chen claimed in his communications that the first batch of equipment was merely an initial deal, and that he had funding to buy tens of millions of dollars’ worth of additional US military equipment, the DOJ said.
The smuggling operation was thwarted by a Department of Homeland Security undercover agent posing as a middleman for the transaction. Chen was arrested in Saipan on October 6, 2025, when he travelled to the Pacific island, a US territory, to pick up the modems.
The US government designates all the equipment in question as sensitive goods subject to export controls under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), meaning they cannot be exported without a licence.
Licences for exports to China under the ITAR fall under “presumption of denial”, meaning an effective ban on all such exports.
Chen’s case comes as the US and China are both increasingly looking to restrict the outflow of critical technologies and military equipment.
In March, the DOJ charged a Chinese national from Hong Kong and two US citizens with conspiring to smuggle export-controlled US semiconductor chips to China through Thailand.
Meanwhile, China has ramped up controls over the smuggling of critical minerals, a vital input for making military equipment including weapons and vehicles.
In May, Chinese authorities arrested two Japanese nationals over alleged attempts to take rare earth-related products out of the country. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
