An electronics technician for the Federal Bureau of Investigation pleaded guilty on Monday to spying for China for five years, saying he did so in exchange for government-sponsored trips and prostitutes, the Justice Department announced.

Kun Shan Chun, who had worked in the FBI's New York office since 1997, said he passed information to a Chinese official from 2011 to 2016. Chun, who immigrated to the United States in 1980 and became a citizen in 1985, held a top secret security clearance.

Espionage that Chun has been charged with engaging in includes taking an internal organizational chart, taking photos of classified surveillance equipment, and revealing the name and travel plans of one of his colleagues.

When officials began to suspect Chun, they arranged for him to talk with another agent who expressed interest in the same activity, and Chun suggested that he connect with his intelligence contacts in China, the Justice Department said.

While Chun could be sentenced to as much as 10 years in prison under the Espionage Act, prosecutors offered Chun a plea deal, which he accepted, under which he waived his right to appeal any sentence of 27 months or less after it has been handed down at a Dec. 2 hearing.

John Schindler, a former analyst for the National Security Agency, speculated the reason for the deal is that prosecutors don't want information involved with the case to come out in a public trial.

"Since the government's evidence against Chun looks airtight, including damning testimony he gave to the undercover FBI agent about his secret ties to China, it seems likely that the feds don't want a trial which would require the bureau to explain in detail what their mole gave to Beijing," Schindler wrote in a column for the Observer.

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Chun's attorney, Jonathan Marvinny, said Chun wanted to move on. "The truth is that Mr. Chun loves the United States and never intended to cause it any harm," Marvinny said. "He hopes to put this matter behind him and move forward with his life."

Schindler expressed optimism over the fact the case came to light. "That the FBI allowed Chun to be arrested may be a positive sign," Schindler said. "I personally know of previous examples where suspected Chinese moles inside our intelligence community were allowed to resign, never to face charges of any kind. In one notorious case a few years back, a Chinese-American mole was uncovered in an FBI field office, indeed caught red-handed. But the employee was allowed to quit and walk away, scot free, since the FBI had no stomach for a messy spy scandal coupled with the inevitable claims of 'racial profiling' that follow the arrest of any Asian-American suspected of spying for Beijing."

"That Chun now faces a few years of prison may be an indication that, at last, our government is getting tough about the rising problem of Chinese espionage against the United States, which is a good thing. Let's see how the Department of Justice handles the next accused Chinese mole, who's sure to come along sooner rather than later."