Chinese man who used drone illegally over Vandenberg, spying for China, given slap on wrist in sentencing
Yinpiao Zhou, the Chinese man who flew a drone illegally over Vandenberg last fall in order to spy for China, has now been sentenced for his crime.
Yinpiao Zhou was sentenced Monday morning by a U.S. district judge in Los Angeles to four months in prison with a year of supervised released [sic]. He was also ordered to pay a $200 fine and $25 special assessment.
Since Zhou has been held in prison almost four months already, he will likely be released in days for time served.
All the evidence suggests he did this either willingly or unwillingly under orders from China. A second man that was with him while he flew the drone was never identified or arrested, and has likely been allowed to flee the country. Zhou himself tried to flee as well, as he was arrested at the airport as he tried to board a plane back to China. He is a Chinese citizen who is lawfully in the U.S., but having been caught spying it is astonishing that he is being allowed to remain in the country. He should be deported immediately.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Yinpiao Zhou, the Chinese man who flew a drone illegally over Vandenberg last fall in order to spy for China, has now been sentenced for his crime.
Yinpiao Zhou was sentenced Monday morning by a U.S. district judge in Los Angeles to four months in prison with a year of supervised released [sic]. He was also ordered to pay a $200 fine and $25 special assessment.
Since Zhou has been held in prison almost four months already, he will likely be released in days for time served.
All the evidence suggests he did this either willingly or unwillingly under orders from China. A second man that was with him while he flew the drone was never identified or arrested, and has likely been allowed to flee the country. Zhou himself tried to flee as well, as he was arrested at the airport as he tried to board a plane back to China. He is a Chinese citizen who is lawfully in the U.S., but having been caught spying it is astonishing that he is being allowed to remain in the country. He should be deported immediately.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
An American caught spying in China would be extraordinarily unlikely to receive such a lenient sentence. I think it more likely that he’d be treated to a decade at hard labor, then count himself very lucky to be immediately deported at the end of it. Just as likely, he’d be executed after a very quick trial. Where does this kid-glove treatment of a foreign spy come from?
We are not China.
Since “a year of supervised released.” is exactly what it states in the article, suggest you add [sic] to indicate that it wasn’t your typo.
Why not 20 years or so for espionage. Keep him as trading material for our people that the CCP catches. That’s how the big game is played.
Steve
That is a great idea. The state department should have quietly “recommended” it to the court.
As a quiet part of our immigration reform we should lower the amount of Chinese citizens allowed in this country for either education reasons or work reasons.
And also try to reduce the “accidental” anchor children born from China in this nation. If a third term woman wants to travel to America she could either be refused or she could sign a paper keeping the child from becoming an American if they are accidentally born here.
Or change the born here law allow the3 child to have citizenship BUT the child is sent back to their parents home nation until the child is 18 and then formally chooses US citizenship..
I was born in Germany in a civilian hospital to American parents. Until I was 18 I could have asked for German citizenship. But instead I joined the US military and also voted, thus giving up my possible German citizenship. (At least thats what I was told at the time.)