A San Francisco tour guide spied on the US for China over the course of years, passing confidential information he picked up at “dead drops” in several US cities, federal prosecutors said Monday.
The suspect, 56-year-old Xuehua Peng, allegedly dropped money and picked up classified information at hotel rooms in Oakland, Newark, California, and Columbus, Georgia, according to an indictment that was unsealed Monday.
Peng, who also went by the name Edward Peng, then passed the classified information — which was stored on SD cards — to officials form the Ministry of State Security in Beijing, prosecutors allege.
“The conduct charged in this case alleges a combination of age-old spycraft and modern technology,” US Attorney David L. Anderson said in a statement announcing the charges against Peng.
“Defendant Xuehua (Edward) Peng is charged with executing dead drops, delivering payments, and personally carrying to Beijing, China, secure digital cards containing classified information related to the national security of the United States,” Anderson added.
Peng, who lived in a suburb of San Francisco and owned a site-seeing company, did not steal the confidential information himself but acted as a courier between his handlers in China and his source in the United States, authorities charge.
He was arrested last week and was denied bail at his initial court hearing. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
“The charges announced today provide a rare glimpse into the secret efforts of the People’s Republic of China to obtain classified national security information from the United States,” Anderson added in his statement.
With Post wires