Joseph Daniel Schmidt biography: 13 things about ex-US Army sergeant who lived in Hong Kong

Joseph Daniel Schmidt is a United States citizen who lived in Hong Kong, China. He was an active duty soldier in the U.S. Army from January 2015 to January 2020, rising to the rank of sergeant.

During Schmidt’s active duty, his primary assignment was to the 109th Military Intelligence Battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Pierce County, Washington, USA. He was assigned to a human intelligence (HUMINT) squad as a HUMINY collector.

When Schmidt became a team leader of other HUMINT collectors, he supervised HUMINT collection operation and the production of intelligence reporting, analysis and the dissemination of intelligence products. He attended the Defense Language Institute Chinese Mandarin training.

On February 9, 2020, Schmidt departed the U.S. and traveled to Istanbul, Turkey. Between February 17, 2020 to February 29, 2020, he searched on Google the words “chinese embassy”, “chinese consulate”, “chinese.consulate number doesn’t go through”, “iranian embassy”, “iranian consulate”, ““iran visa”, “afghanistan visa”, “pakistan resident visa”, “russian visa costs”, “turkey extradition military defection”, ““can you be extradited for treason”, “countries that dont extradite”, ““countries with most negative relations with US” and “soldier defect”, among others.

On February 24, 2020, Schmidt emailed the Chinese consulate in Istanbul and tried to set up an appointment. He wrote in part, “I also am trying to share information I learned during my career as an interrogator with the Chinese government. I have a current top secret clearance, and would like to talk to someone from the Government to share this information with you if that is possible.”

On February 26, 2020, Schmidt created a Microsoft Word document titled “Important Information to Share with Chinese Government”. On the same day, he searched on Google the words “chinese military papers”.

Schmidt was 29 years old when he was arrested on October 6, 2023. Here are more things about him:

1. On March 23, 2015, he entered a non-disclosure agreement with the U.S. Army.
2. In April 2017, he emailed himself a copy of the Chinese visa application he filled out before his trip to China.
3. Between August 2017 and April 2018, he submitted at least two leave requests to the U.S. Army for the stated purpose of traveling to China but he did not take any of those trips.
4. In November 2017 and in December 2017, while on active duty with the U.S. Army, he took personal eave and traveled to China.
5. In January 2018 and in April 2019, he provided to the U.S. Army a Gmail account subscribed to in the name of Joe Schmidt as his email address. He has another Gmail account subscribed to in the name of Joey Schmidt, which he used to make travel reservations for his trips to China.
6. On February 22, 2019, he searched on Google the words “if it doesn’t stop im going straight to china. I’m not taking anymore of this because someone literally thought I looked funny after they spiked my drink”.
7. On December 17, 2019, he was read out of the U.S. Army’s sensitive compartment information accesses but his top secret remained active.
8. On January 8, 2020, he transitioned to inactive U.S. Army duty status. On January 14, 2020, he departed the U.S. on a flight itinerary destined to Beijing, China. On January 14, 2020, he returned to the U.S. from Qingdao Airport in Qingdao, Shandong, China.
9. On February 29, 2020, while still in Turkey, he used Google Maps to conduct research on driving directions from the airport in Beijing to the Ministry of State Security (MSS) headquarters.
10. On March 2, 2020, he departed Turkey and returned to the U.S. He went to Hong Kong on March 6, 2020, to Beijing on March 9, 2020 and back to Hong Kong on March 12, 2020. On March 29, 2020, he took photographs of several hand-drawn sketches that depicted information known to him through his service in the U.S. Army.
11. On May 7, 2020, he emailed his sister, saying in part, “The real reason I left America is because of a disagreement with American policy. I don’t talk about it often, but I learned some really terrible things about the American government while I was working in the Army, and I no longer feel safe living in America or like I want to support the American government. I don’t plan on going back any time, except maybe once to sell my house, and I plan on limiting my contact with people who live in America.”
12. In July 2020, Hong Kong immigration authorities notified him that he had been overstaying in Hong Kong since June 12, 2020. On August 7, 2020, he received a work permit from China. On September 28, 2020, he emailed Hong Kong immigration authorities requesting the return of his passport.
13. On October 6, 2023, he was arrested upon arrival at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California, USA on flight from Hong Kong and charged with attempting to deliver national defense information and retention of national defense information.