On Wednesday, September 16th, Ruoyu Duan, a former US Army soldier, pleaded guilty in the Federal Court of Oregon to charges of collecting American defense intelligence for the Chinese Communist Party.
According to an announcement on the official website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon, 41-year-old Ruoyu Duan resided in Hillsboro, Oregon.
He admitted to conspiring with two active-duty military personnel and others from November 2021 to March 2025 to secretly collect sensitive military intelligence on the US Army’s combat capabilities and transmit it to individuals in China.
Ruoyu Duan acted as the middleman in this small intelligence network. He was responsible for identifying active-duty US military personnel with valuable information and facilitating intelligence transactions and fund transfers between US soldiers and individuals in China.
Working in conspiracy with his co-defendants, they illicitly collected US military computer equipment, training materials, intelligence reports, and technical manuals in exchange for compensation.
Federal Assistant Prosecutor Geoffrey A. Barrow stated that Ruoyu Duan recruited two friends serving at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, Captain Li Tian and Sergeant Jian Zhao. Captain Li Tian held security clearance and had access to classified materials.
Specifically, they obtained intelligence related to US Army weapon systems such as Bradleys, Strykers, and the HIMARS platform, and forwarded this information to individuals in China.
In November 2021, Ruoyu Duan introduced Li Tian to an individual in Hong Kong with the alias “M.B.” He also connected Jian Zhao with Chinese intelligence buyers and facilitated financial transactions between the two parties.
Li Tian later provided Ruoyu Duan with military-sensitive information under the guise of “providing courses.” The Army intelligence documents were referred to as “study materials,” and the payments Ruoyu Duan made were termed “tuition fees.”
The materials provided by Li Tian included publicly-sourced intelligence reports, documents related to the Stryker brigade combat team, and a technical manual for an armored vehicle. These materials were subject to distribution restrictions due to their sensitive nature.
Subsequently, Ruoyu Duan transmitted the collected defense intelligence to the Chinese individual M.B. and other unauthorized recipients.
Ruoyu Duan served as a US Army soldier from 2013 to 2017 (alternate sources suggest he enlisted in 2014). He received training in handling sensitive and confidential military information. He was medically discharged for duty injuries and was arrested while receiving disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
On March 5, 2025, a federal grand jury in Portland indicted Ruoyu Duan, along with active-duty soldiers Li Tian and Jian Zhao, on charges of conspiracy to bribe and steal government property.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Ruoyu Duan in Oregon the following day. During a search of his residence, investigators seized a batch of computer hard drives labeled “Secret” and “Top Secret,” some of which matched the data Li Tian had transmitted through cloud services.
Li Tian and Jian Zhao have denied the charges since their arrest and are expected to appear in court again in October.
The investigation is being handled by the FBI’s Portland and Seattle field offices, in conjunction with the US Army Counterintelligence Command, supported by US Customs and Border Protection, the US Postal Inspection Service, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
The prosecution is led by federal assistant prosecutors in Oregon and lawyers from the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
Federal District Court Judge Karin J. Immergut is set to sentence Ruoyu Duan in December 2026. Given his guilty plea, he could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and 3 years of supervised release.
Federal public defender assistant Peyton Lee is representing Ruoyu Duan. Previous defense attorneys have argued that some of the information transmitted was non-sensitive or publicly available data and outdated.