A federal judge granted the government’s request on Jan. 12 to hold Chinese national Wu Qilin in detention over concerns that the man is a flight risk, after he was charged with illegally photographing a “vital military installation” in Johnson County, Missouri.

According to court documents, Wu entered the country illegally on or about June 22, 2023, near Nogales, Arizona, and was released because Border Patrol lacked detention space to hold him. He was set to have an immigration hearing on Jan. 6. Wu has been in custody since Dec. 3, 2025.

Whiteman Air Force Base

U.S. attorney R. Matthew Price announced the charges on Jan. 7, alleging that Wu took photographs of “a vital military installation and military equipment without authorization.”

According to the Department of Justice, the Whiteman Air Force Base Office of Special Investigations looked into a report of a suspicious minivan with a Massachusetts license plate near the perimeter of the base on Dec. 2, 2025. Air Force patrolmen encountered Wu at that location, and Wu told them that he was there to observe the B-2 Spirit aircraft, a stealth, heavy bomber, according to the Justice Department.

The patrolmen told Wu that he was not permitted to photograph or record the base, but Wu’s minivan was observed near the base again the next day, on Dec. 3, according to the criminal complaint. The patrolmen again engaged with Wu, and he allegedly made multiple admissions of taking photographs and recording the military installation, showing the officers 18 images or videos of the base and “vital military equipment,” according to the complaint.

He admitted his actions to law enforcement again on Dec. 4, according to the complaint, and that confession was audio- and video-recorded.

The FBI executed a search warrant of Wu’s phone on Jan. 2, and according to the complaint, additional charges may be pursued if the FBI finds that the images of vital equipment were forwarded to a third party.

Wu allegedly claimed that he was “an aviation enthusiast,” according to court documents. Prosecutors argued that Wu took photos and videos of the base’s security perimeter, leading them to believe that his “intent was to capture images that could later [be] examined by nefarious actors who are interested in infiltrating the security of this vital military installation.”

Defendant’s History

According to court documents, Wu originally sought asylum in the United States, but on Dec. 3, “told investigators that he no longer likes Americans and that he intended to return to China.”

Prosecutors argued that this revealed an intent to flee, posing a great risk to national security. They stated that Wu “was likely involved in espionage” and had indicated an interest in visiting other military installations to take photos. Prosecutors argued that the incapacitation of the air force base, which houses the nation’s B-2 fleet, would “have a debilitating impact on the nation’s nuclear posture and one or more critical [War Department] missions.”

According to an FBI special agent’s affidavit, Wu had flown from China to Ecuador before traveling north to Mexico to cross the border into Arizona on foot. Wu had served in the Chinese military and had told investigators during a December interview that during that time, he “witnessed troubling events that led him to conclude conditions in China were ‘no longer good.’”

Wu, who possessed a Massachusetts driver’s license, told investigators on Dec. 2 that he had driven from Boston to New York state and then to Missouri to see a B-2 bomber. He said in the same interview that he previously visited the Langley Air Force Base in Virginia and photographed multiple military aircraft, according to a court document.

Investigators ran a criminal background check on Wu and found that on May 7, 2024, Key West Police Department officers in Florida responded to reports of a suspicious vehicle and found that Wu had been camping and lodging in his van at 55 Quay Road in Key West.

“[The location is] situated directly within the pathway used by Naval aircraft for takeoff and landing operations,” the FBI said.

Counsel for Wu did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the name of the B-2 Spirit aircraft in one instance. The Epoch Times regrets the error.