Name: Chinese National Charged for Using Drone to Photograph US Shipyard
Uploaded: 2024-06-06T18:47:48.000Z
Description: A Chinese national who has been charged by the U.S. Justice Department for using a drone to take photos near a naval shipyard in Virginia is scheduled to appear in court next month.

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A Chinese national who has been charged by the U.S. Justice Department for using a drone to take photos near a naval shipyard in Virginia is scheduled to appear in court next month.

Shi Fengyun, born in China in 1998, is now restricted to living in Virginia before his trial, according to court documents. He is accused of violating two statutes of the Espionage Act—unlawful <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/795">photography</a> of military installations and the use of an <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/796?quicksearch=&quicksearch=795">aircraft</a> to carry out such an act.

Court documents alleged that Mr. Shi, a foreign student visa holder, flew to Virginia on Jan. 5 to take a break from his graduate studies at the University of Minnesota. Upon arrival, he rented a Tesla at the airport.

A day later, Mr. Shi allegedly flew a drone about 50 yards across the street to the Newport News Shipbuilding shipyard, which is known for building <a href="https://hii.com/what-we-do/capabilities/submarines/">nuclear submarines</a> and next-generation Gerald R. Ford-class <a href="https://hii.com/what-we-do/capabilities/aircraft-carriers/">aircraft carriers</a>.

The court documents stated that the weather was inclement at the time, and the drone got stuck in a resident’s tree. Mr. Shi then sought help from the resident, who asked him several questions, including his nationality.

The unnamed resident then took photos of Mr. Shi, his ID, and the license plate of his vehicle before calling the Newport News Police Department (NNPD).

Mr. Shi appeared “very nervous” when questioned by responding NNPD officers, the court document stated, and he “did not have any real reasons for why he was flying the drone.”

NNPD officers then gave Mr. Shi the number for the local fire department and advised him to contact the department to get his drone off the tree and stay on the scene, according to court documents. Eventually, Mr. Shi returned to his rental car an hour later and abandoned his drone.

On Jan. 7, the resident moved the drone to his shed for law enforcement after discovering that it had fallen from the tree, according to court documents.

The FBI seized the drone and discovered photos and videos inside the drone’s memory card.

The photos and videos appeared to “capture U.S. Naval vessels and/or vessels intended for use by the U.S. Navy that are drydocked at either of two defense contractors, Newport News Shipbuilding (“NNSB”) in Newport News, Virginia and/or BAE Systems shipbuilding in Norfolk, Virginia,” according to the court documents.

Additionally, the court documents noted that three commissioned submarines—the USS Boise, USS Columbus, and USS Montana—were located at NNSB on the day that Mr. Shi used his drone.

“Naval aircraft carriers have classified and sensitive systems throughout the carriers,” the court documents read. “The nuclear submarines present on that date also have highly classified and sensitive Navy Nuclear Propulsion Information ('NNPI') and those submarines even in the design and construction phase are sensitive and classified.”

Mr. Shi’s trial was initially set to begin on June 20. Now, it is scheduled to start on July 8.

The schedule was reset because of the "unusual" nature of the case. The case’s judge, Magistrate Judge Lawrence R. Leonard of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, wrote in a court document that “this case is so unusual based on the nature of the prosecution and the novel questions of both law and fact.”

“Defendants has been charged under two statutes which have rarely been prosecuted, and under which the court has able to find only one reported case,” the judge added, referring to the case <a href="https://casetext.com/case/genovese-v-town-of-southampton">Genovese v. Town of Southampton</a>, which involved photographing a military base but not an aircraft.

Mr. Shi called himself a “startup manager” on his LinkedIn page. He has a bachelor’s degree from China’s Jilin University and a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota. Between August 2020 and January 2021, he worked at the State Grid Corporation of China, a state-owned enterprise in China.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>

The Epoch Times has contacted Mr. Shi's lawyer and the Justice Department for comment.

<em>From <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/chinese-national-charged-for-using-drone-to-photograph-us-shipyard-5663914">The Epoch Times</a></em>

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