CERL Advisory Council member Mary Ellen O’Connell recently spoke with media about Shi Fengyun, the 26-year-old Chinese student who plead guilty to misdemeanor espionage charges on Monday for taking photographs of U.S. military infrastructure using a drone.

Although accidentally capturing photos of military installations while flying a drone isn’t usually persecuted to this degree, O’Connell said that the case should not be interpreted as the U.S. government’s suspicion of foreign nationals as spies because historically, “some of the most destructive spies are American citizens.”

Mary Ellen O’Connell is the Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law and Research Professor of International Dispute Resolution—Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame. Read her bio here. 

The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of any organization or university.