US seeks to revoke citizenship of two China-born men convicted in Beijing-linked cases

The US Justice Department (DOJ) is seeking to revoke the citizenship of a former Navy sailor convicted of spying for China and a Florida man convicted of conspiring to act as an agent of Beijing, it announced on Monday.Jinchao Wei and Ping Li are among 40 people facing denaturalisation actions in what the department described as the largest batch of such filings under the Trump administration. The civil proceedings remain pending, with no determination of liability, the DOJ said.The case against Wei was filed on September 30 in the Southern District of California, while the case against Li was filed on October 1 in the Middle District of Florida.Wei was convicted of espionage and export offences in August 2025 and sentenced in January to 200 months in prison, or 16 years and eight months. But the same jury acquitted him of naturalisation fraud, according to the DOJ’s announcement of his sentence.