(CNN) Federal prosecutors accused a former CIA officer of selling sensitive defense secrets to the Chinese government over a decade in an espionage case revealed in Hawaii on Monday. Alexander Yuk Ching Ma allegedly handed over information about the CIA's personnel and tradecraft to Chinese intelligence and was given tens of thousands of dollars in return. A naturalized US citizen born in Hong Kong, Ma, 67, told an undercover FBI agent posing as a Chinese intelligence officer earlier this month that he wanted "the motherland" to succeed, according to court documents. Senior officials called Ma a traitor. "The trail of Chinese espionage is long and, sadly, strewn with former American intelligence officers who betrayed their colleagues, their country and its liberal democratic values to support an authoritarian communist regime," John Demers, the assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.

Source: CNN August 18, 2020 02:25 UTC