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Two Chinese nationals sentenced to 30 months in prison over spying for China

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Coverage spectrum

Covered by 3 outlets, mostly right-leaning (67%).

3 articles in total. The spectrum counts each outlet once and leaves opinion out. How we measure bias

Stone building exterior with 'Department of Justice' lettering beside a carved stone urn pedestal.
Image via Al Jazeera EnglishHow images are chosenReport this image

Two Chinese nationals, Liren Lai and Yuance Chen, were each sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release on Friday, according to a Justice Department statement. The Washington Times and The Epoch Times report that the pair acted under the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security. The Epoch Times, citing the department, says they gathered information about US military personnel and installations and helped recruit service members as intelligence sources. Al Jazeera English reports that Lai and Chen admitted facilitating ‘dead drop’ cash payments worth at least $30,000 to people in the US. The Justice Department says the scheme was extensive and was carried out at China’s direction.

Headline and summary written by Mantle’s AI from the coverage below, under published rules. How this works

What happened

Key points

Each point shows who reports it, from Far Left to Far Right.

  1. Liren Lai and Yuance Chen were each sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release, the Justice Department said.

    Reported byLeft1Far Right1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    Al Jazeera English
    Far Right
    The Epoch Times

  2. The two worked for China’s Ministry of State Security, according to the Justice Department.

    Reported byLeft1Right1Far Right1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    Al Jazeera English
    Right
    The Washington Times
    Far Right
    The Epoch Times

  3. Lai and Chen facilitated ‘dead drop’ cash payments to people in the US, according to the Justice Department.

    Reported byLeft1Far Right1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    Al Jazeera English
    Far Right
    The Epoch Times

  4. Lai and Chen admitted to facilitating dead drop cash payments worth at least $30,000.

    One outletAl Jazeera English· Left

  5. The pair gathered information about US military personnel and installations and helped recruit service members as intelligence sources, the Justice Department said.

    One outletThe Epoch Times· Far Right

How each side tells it

Compare views

Every side reports that two Chinese nationals were sentenced to prison for acting as agents of China's Ministry of State Security. The left-side report stresses dead-drop payments, while right-side outlets add the recruitment of US military personnel.

  • the left

    1 outlet

    Al Jazeera English, the only left-side outlet in this set, uses a short headline on the jailing and states the dead-drop payments and the $30,000 figure first.

    US jails two Chinese nationals for spying
    Al Jazeera EnglishLeftAll left-leaning headlines

  • the center

    No coverage yet

    No center outlet that Mantle follows has covered this story yet. That absence is part of the picture.

  • the right

    2 outlets

    Washington Times headlines report the sentences and the Chinese intelligence link; the Far Right Epoch Times leads with ‘Chinese Agents’ and the recruitment of military personnel.

    2 Chinese Agents Sentenced for Helping Recruit US Military Personnel as Sources
    The Epoch TimesFar RightAll right-leaning headlines

The words they chose

Language to notice

Words that carry a judgement beyond the facts. Tap a highlighted word anywhere on the page to see why.

Mantle found no loaded language in this coverage. Every headline and opening was checked against Mantle’s published word list, and Mantle’s AI read all 3 articles in context. Straight reporting often has none.

See for yourself

Side by side

What each side leads with and what it leaves out. Open a side to read its headlines.

From the left

1 outlet

Leads with

  • the jailing
  • dead-drop cash payments of at least $30,000
  • recruitment of US military service members
See the headline from the leftHide the headlines

From the center

0 outlets

No center outlet that Mantle follows has covered this story yet. That absence is part of the picture.

From the right

2 outlets

Leads with

  • Ministry of State Security link
  • recruitment of US military personnel
  • covert payments and gathering of military information
See the 2 headlines from the rightHide the headlines
  • The Epoch TimesFar Right

    2 Chinese Agents Sentenced for Helping Recruit US Military Personnel as Sources

    Federal officials said the operation involved covert payments and efforts to gather details about armed forces personnel and their installations.

    Read at The Epoch Times (opens in a new tab)
  • The Washington TimesRight

    Two Chinese nationals get prison terms for spying as MSS agents

    Two Chinese nationals convicted of spying as unregistered agents were sentenced to prison in California for collaborating with China's Ministry of State Security intelligence service, the Justice Department said Friday.

    Read at The Washington Times (opens in a new tab)

The stories you read build My Mix, a private picture of which sides cover the stories you choose, kept on this device. What is My Mix?

The left is Far Left and Left together. The right is Right and Far Right together. Every outlet keeps its own five-point rating.

Who reported it when

How the coverage built up

  • Left

    5 hr later

    Its first report, Oct 31, 12:41 AM EDT

  • Center

    No report yet

    From the outlets Mantle follows

  • Right

    First to report

    The Washington Times, Oct 30, 7:42 PM EDT

See the order the outlets reported inHide the order
  1. The Washington TimesRightOct 30, 7:42 PM EDT
  2. Al Jazeera EnglishLeftOct 31, 12:41 AM EDT
  3. The Epoch TimesFar RightOct 31, 12:00 PM EDT

Times are the ones the outlets published in their own feeds, in Eastern time. Opinion is left out.

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