Former CIA Officer Alexander Yuk Ching Ma Arrested and Charged with Spying For China

The Justice Department announced Monday that a former CIA officer was arrested and charged with espionage.

67-year-old Alexander Yuk Ching Ma was arrested on Friday and charged with spying for China.

According to the DOJ, Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, beginning in 2001, conspired with a relative of his, who was also a former CIA officer, to communicate top secret material to intel agents from China.

For nearly two decades on and off Alexander Yuk Ching Ma disclosed a substantial amount of highly classified national defense information of the United States to the MSS officers.

Ma was a naturalized citizen from Hong Kong and joined the CIA in 1982 — He had a TOP SECRET clearance and had access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI).

The DOJ said Ma conspired with an 85-year-old relative who was a naturalized citizen from Shanghai.

The US government will not be seeking an arrest warrant for the 85-year-old co-conspirator due to an “advanced and debilitating cognitive disease.”

Last year THREE former CIA officers were sentenced for conspiring with China.

Last November Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 55, was sentenced to 19 years in prison for conspiring with China to commit espionage after being promised by Chinese officials that he would be taken care of financially for life.

Lee was also a naturalized US citizen from Hong Kong and served in the CIA from 1994 through 2007 — he pleaded guilty to the charges in May of last year.