A former U.S. Army soldier from Hillsboro, Oregon, pleaded guilty to conspiring to gather and transmit national defense information to people in China.
Ruoyu Duan, 41, pleaded guilty to the charge after prosecutors said he paid active-duty U.S. Army soldiers and others to obtain sensitive military information and equipment, according to the DOJ.
According to court documents, Duan and his co-conspirators secretly gathered information about U.S. Army operational capabilities between November 2021 and March 2025. The material included training materials, intelligence reports, technical manuals and information on military equipment.
The information included details about U.S. weapons systems and combat vehicles such as the Bradley, Stryker and HIMARS platforms, which prosecutors said were transferred to people in China.
Duan served in the U.S. Army from 2013 to 2017 and was trained to handle sensitive and classified military information.
Duan was arrested in Oregon on March 6, 2025, following a federal investigation that also involved two active-duty soldiers stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Jian Zhao and Li Tian.
At the time, Duan and Tian were charged in Oregon with conspiring to commit bribery and theft of government property, while Zhao faced separate charges in Washington for allegedly conspiring to obtain and transmit national defense information, along with bribery and theft charges. The Justice Department said the three were arrested following indictments by federal grand juries.
Duan now faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 10, 2026, before U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut.