A former Pentagon official has been sentenced to three years in prison for passing classified information to a Chinese spy. James Fondren, 62, provided "certain classified defence department documents and other information" to a friend, who turned out to be a Chinese spy.
The judge said the information passed on caused little or no harm to US national security.
Fondren, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel, is appealing.
His lawyer argued that Fondren did not know that Tai Shen Kuo, a naturalised US citizen from Taiwan, was a spy.
But prosecutors say that "Fondren was aware that Kuo had maintained a close relationship with an official of the People's Republic of China".
Fondren is the former deputy director of the US Pacific Command's Washington Liaison Office, a position which reportedly afforded him "top secret" security clearance.
The sentence comes at a time of heightened tension between the two countries, with Beijing warning on Friday that Washington's criticism of its internet controls could harm ties between the two countries.
