A 38-year-old man has pleaded guilty to a federal charge for stealing a rare and historical Chinese manuscript from the UCLA library system , according to court papers.

Jeffrey Ying of Fremont, in Alameda County, entered a plea Monday in Los Angeles federal court to one count of theft of major artwork, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge John Walter set sentencing for Jan. 5.

An affidavit filed in the case states that Ying stole rare books and manuscripts worth nearly $216,000 from UCLA’s library from December 2024 to July 2025. He would rent the documents, bring them home to the Bay Area for days at a time, then return a dummy manuscript instead of the authentic one, prosecutors said.

He typically traveled to China within days of the thefts,

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