US jails would-be CIA spy for China

A MAN was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison for trying to get a job with the CIA so he could spy for China, just as Chinese president Hu Jintao was wrapping up his US visit.

Glenn Shriver, 29, of Michigan, pleaded guilty in October to conspiring to communicate national defence information after admitting he met Chinese officials about 20 times and took about $70,000 (43,700) from Chinese intelligence officers.

Shriver said at the sentencing hearing he made a "terrible decision" to try to spy for China and "somewhere along the way I got into bed with the wrong people."

Prosecutors said Shriver was caught before he could begin working at the Central Intelligence Agency and that he never came close to getting access to classified information.

He spent a year studying in Shanghai in 2002-3 and moved there in 2004 to continue his studies and to work. Prosecutors said he replied to an advertisement for a writer on US-Sino relations and was introduced to Chinese intelligence agents.