Topline
The Department of Justice on Wednesday charged five people with working on the Chinese government’s behalf to intimidate China critics and a New York congressional candidate, part of what federal prosecutors framed as an international push by Chinese security officials to crack down on dissidents.
The Department of Justice headquarters stands on February 19, 2020.
Key Facts
The five defendants were charged with conspiring to act as agents of the Chinese government, harassment conspiracy or other criminal offenses, in three separate cases unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday.
One defendant who worked for the Chinese Ministry of State Security allegedly spent months trying to derail the 2022 campaign of a congressional candidate who had participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, hiring a private investigator to “create” a sex scandal and possibly physically harm him.
Another defendant allegedly ran the New York-based Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang Memorial Foundation, a pro-democracy group whose members include Chinese government critics, but the DOJ says he used this position to gather information on U.S.-based dissidents for Chinese security officials.
The other three defendants were accused of seeking to spy on and intimidate Chinese regime critics in the United States, at one point allegedly trying to bribe an Internal Revenue Service agent into giving up tax returns for a dissident artist.
The pro-democracy group leader and two of the three people who allegedly tried to intimidate the artist were arrested in New York this week, and the other two defendants are still at large, according to a DOJ statement.
Forbes has reached out to the pro-democracy leader’s attorney and the Chinese Embassy in Washington for comment (information on the other four defendants’ attorneys was not listed in federal court records).
Tangent
The DOJ didn’t identify the congressional candidate who was allegedly pursued by a Chinese security official, but Reuters notes the description seems to match Xiong Yan, who is running in the Democratic primary for a House seat on Long Island. Yan fled China after participating in the Tiananmen protests and later joined the U.S. military, according to Human Rights Watch. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Forbes.
Crucial Quote
“Through their illegal conduct, the defendants and their co-conspirators imported the [Chinese] government’s repressive policies onto U.S. soil,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said during a press conference Wednesday.
Key Background
Federal prosecutors claimed the five defendants were part of a broader push to intimidate and surveil Chinese dissidents—even if they’re located outside of China. In 2020, the DOJ charged eight people with attempting to pressure U.S. residents into returning to China and face criminal charges, an effort known as Operation Fox Hunt. The Chinese government has cast the operation as an effort to catch international fugitives, but some of the targets include dissidents, according to a July ProPublica investigation. Federal prosecutors also accused a China-based telecommunications staffer who reportedly worked with Zoom of shutting down U.S. video calls set up to mark the anniversary of Tiananmen Square. Relations between the U.S. and Chinese governments are tense: The United States has sanctioned Chinese officials over their treatment of Uyghurs and accused the government of carrying out a genocide, and U.S. officials have warned China against backing Russia while it invades Ukraine.
Surprising Fact
Over the last two years, the DOJ has also brought charges against Iranian intelligence officers accused of plotting to kidnap a journalist in New York, Belarusian officials who allegedly forced a commercial plane to land to arrest a dissident onboard and alleged Russian and Chinese government-backed hackers. These cases could prove challenging, partly because the United States doesn’t have extradition treaties with China, Russia, Iran or Belarus.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/03/16/feds-accuse-china-of-campaign-to-intimidate-critics-in-us/