WASHINGTON — A Navy officer who became a naturalized U.S. citizen has been charged with providing classified information to China, U.S. officials said.
The charges against the officer, Lt. Cmdr. Edward C. Lin, who was born in Taiwan, are part of a secretive espionage case in which Lin is also accused of visiting a prostitute. One U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Navy officials believed Lin provided secret information to a Chinese girlfriend.
Lin, who works with Navy spy planes, is accused of communicating secret information knowing that it would be used by a foreign government, with committing adultery, with hiring a prostitute and with not disclosing foreign travel to the U.S. government and then lying about it.
The Navy has not formally identified Lin in connection with the case, but it was first reported by USNI News and later confirmed by a U.S. official.