A Chinese student has been sentenced to a year in federal prison after pleading guilty to illegally taking photos of a US military installation in the Florida Keys.

Zhao Qianli, a student reportedly studying musicology in the country as part of a summer exchange programme from the North University of China, was sentenced on Tuesday by a federal judge in Florida.

Authorities said the 20-year-old took photos in September of sensitive areas of the Key West Naval Air Station after walking around a fence into a well-marked restricted zone.

Qianli attorney insisted he was merely a tourist who got lost and wandered onto the base. But investigators say he had only base photos on his cellphone and camera, and none of familiar tourist locations in Key West.

The arrest followed a recent report surrounding the Beijing government’s espionage operations, revealing US officials believe young Chinese people are being recruited as spies to help gather intelligence on technology, science and businesses around the world.

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The Chinese student was spotted wading in the water near the naval base while seemingly avoiding a security fence on the southern end of the site, according to court filings. Federal prosecutor Michael Sherwin said an eye-witness also saw Qianli heading directly towards the Defence Department antenna field, where he began taking photos.

“The primary pictures on that camera were of the military facility,” he added. “It did not have the hallmark of a tourist who got lost and wandered onto the military facility.”

US District Judge K Michael Moore handed down the maximum sentence in the case, going above the sentencing guidelines and US attorney’s office, which sought up to a nine-month sentence for Zhao.

“He’s not a spy,” Qianli’s defence attorney Hongwei Shang argued. “A spy would not do things like him. There’s no proof. ... He committed a stupid mistake. He confessed to it. He just wants to go home.”

Last year, a 27-year-old Chinese citizen was charged with one count of knowingly acting in the US as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification of the attorney general, a statement from the US attorney’s office in Chicago said. He allegedly worked at the direction of high-ranking intelligence officials with the People’s Republic of China and was given the task of providing information about eight people for possible recruitment.

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Federal prosecutors said Ji Chaoqun was arrested for allegedly spying, including by helping with the recruitment of US engineers, defense contractors and scientists for intelligence services in China, federal prosecutors said.