微博

一 |     LOS ANGELES -- A U.S. Navy sailor charged with providing sensitive military information to China pleaded guilty in Los Angeles on Tuesday to conspiring with a foreign intelligence officer and receiving a bribe, federal prosecutors said. Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, originally pleaded not guilty when he was charged Aug. 4. The Justice Department alleges that Zhao, based at Naval Base Ventura County, north of Los Angeles, conspired to collect nearly $15,000 in bribes from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for information, photos and videos of involving Navy exercises, operations and facilities.The information included plans for a large-scale U.S. military exercise in the Indo-Pacific region, which detailed the location and timing of naval force movements, prosecutors said. The Chinese officer told Zhao the information was needed for maritime economic research to inform investment decisions, according to the indictment.Zhao, who also went by the name Thomas Zhao and held a U.S. security clearance, “admitted he engaged in a corrupt scheme to collect and transmit sensitive U.S. military information to the intelligence officer in violation of his official duties,” the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release Tuesday. Zhao, of Monterey Park, California, faces a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. He has been in custody since his arrest on Aug. 3.Zhao was charged on the same day as another California-based Navy sailor who is accused of similar crimes. But they are separate cases, and federal officials haven't said if the two were courted or paid by the same Chinese intelligence officer as part of a larger scheme. Jinchao Wei, a 22-year-old assigned to the San Diego-based USS Essex, is charged with providing detailed information on the weapons systems and aircraft aboard the Essex and other amphibious assault ships that act as small aircraft carriers. He pleaded not guilty in federal court in San Diego. Last week, a former U.S. Army intelligence officer was charged in Seattle with attempting to provide classified defense information to the Chinese security services during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sgt. Joseph Daniel Schmidt, 29, was arrested Oct. 6 at San Francisco International Airport as he arrived from Hong Kong, where he had been living since March 2020, the Justice Department said. A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging him with retention and attempted delivery of national defense information. U.S. District Court records in Seattle did not yet list an attorney representing Schmidt on the charges, and neither the U.S. attorney’s office nor the federal public defender’s office had information about whether he had a lawyer.An FBI declaration filed in the case quoted Schmidt as telling his sister in an email that he left the U.S. because he disagreed with unspecified aspects of American policy.。    据悉，该法旨在加强美国国内电池供应链、减少对海外电池供应和生产的依赖。DOE称，获得资金的公司将致力于提取和加工锂、石墨和其他电池材料、制造部件并展示在国内或在自由贸易协定国获得关键材料的新方法。虽然DOE没有说明哪些公司获得了资金，但电池化学公司Sila的联合创始人兼CEO Gene Berdichevksy告诉TechCrunch，他的创业公司从该基金获得了1亿美元。

二 | 眼下，Sila正在用硅取代阳极中的石墨，该公司称这不仅能制造出更好的电池还能避免从外国采购石墨的供应链限制。

三 | 这笔钱将用于Sila即将在华盛顿州摩西湖建立的工厂，该工厂的目标是每年提供10千兆瓦时的产能。DOE表示，联邦投资将由受援国匹配以带来90多亿美元的资金，进而促进美国清洁能源技术的生产，这支持拜登的目标--即到2030年所有新车销售都是电动汽车。今年早些时候，拜登还通过了《减少通货膨胀法》，其中包括一套消费者有资格获得电动车税收抵免的规定，这包括关键的电池材料需要在美国国内或自由贸易协定国家采购。DOE为所选项目制定了一系列目标，包括开发足够的电池级锂、石墨以及镍。该资金还将帮助安装美国第一个大规模的商业锂电解质盐生产工厂和美国第一个磷酸铁锂正极工厂以及其他工厂。