U.S. Navy Spying Case: Is This What China Was Really After?

Steven Horrell

Security, Asia

Here Is a Clue: It does not go boom. 

News trickled out this weekend about a US Navy Officer charged with espionage who may have jeopardized significant intelligence collection capabilities and sensitive operations because of the access he had to patrol and reconnaissance aircraft.

The Officer, who has been identified (although not officially confirmed by the Navy) as Lt. Cmdr. Edward C. Lin, is accused of multiple counts of passing and attempting to pass secret information to a foreign government, reportedly China.

Lin had assignments with a Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron, which flies the EP-3E Aires II signals intelligence collection aircraft, and a Special Projects Squadron. China may have an abiding special interest in EP-3E collection operations and capabilities going back to the June 2001 mid-air collision between an EP-3E and a Chinese J-811 interceptor fighter jet. The Chinese pilot was killed in the collision and the EP-3E was forced to land on Hainan Island. Chinese authorities detained the crew of the EP-3E and blamed the United States for the incident. Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the commander in chief of the United States Pacific Command at the time, accused the Chinese plane of tailing the US jet.