DOJ Charges Alleged Chinese Intelligence Officers With Trying To Interfere With Huawei Prosecution

Topline

The Justice Department announced charges Monday against 13 people allegedly involved in attempts by the Chinese government to influence U.S. operations, including two Chinese nationals who were accused of trying to obstruct a government investigation into Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

Key Facts

The DOJ charged Guochun He and Zheng Wang with attempting to obstruct a criminal prosecution into an unnamed global telecommunications company—which multiple outlets have identified as Huawei—and He with additional money laundering charges after he allegedly paid $61,000 in Bitcoin to a U.S. government employee.

The defendants, who were allegedly intelligence officers working on behalf of the Chinese government, allegedly “orchestrated” a scheme starting in 2019 to steal information from the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which indicted Huawei and its subsidiaries for fraud and racketeering in 2019 and 2020.

He and Wang allegedly paid an employee working for a U.S. law enforcement agency to steal information that would help them obstruct the FBI’s investigation, but the U.S. employee was actually a double agent working with the FBI, thwarting their efforts.

The DOJ also charged seven Chinese nationals in a separate New York case, which alleges the defendants unlawfully tried to coerce a Chinese citizen to repatriate to China under the country’s “Operation Fox Hunt” policy that aims to send Chinese citizens who have been accused of financial crimes back to the country.

A third case filed in New Jersey charges four Chinese nationals, including three government intelligence officers, with conspiracy after they allegedly tried to recruit people to provide information and assistance to the Chinese government over the course of at least 10 years, including university professors and former government officials.

Two of the defendants charged in the Operation Fox Hunt case have been arrested, while the others remain at large, including He and Wang.

Crucial Quote

“As these cases demonstrate, the government of China sought to interfere with the rights and freedoms of individuals in the United States and to undermine our judicial system that protects those rights. They did not succeed,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday. “The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by any foreign power to undermine the Rule of Law upon which our democracy is based.”

What To Watch For

It may be unlikely that all of the defendants will actually be punished for their alleged crimes, as any defendants who have returned to China are outside of the DOJ’s jurisdiction and cannot be arrested. He and Wang face possible prison sentences of up to 40 and 20 years, respectively, if found guilty. Defendants in the New York case involving “Operation Fox Hunt” face maximum sentences of between five and 20 years depending on the individual charges against each defendant, which include acting as agents of the Chinese government, money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit interstate and international stalking. In the New Jersey case, defendants face up to five years in prison for conspiracy, along with a maximum fine of $250,000.

Key Background

The Justice Department indicted Huawei and its chief financial officer in January 2019 on fraud charges, alleging the company deceived the U.S. government and global financial institutions by claiming it did not own the Iranian company Skycom, when in fact it did. The company also allegedly misrepresented information to its financial partners, and sought to obstruct the DOJ’s investigation into Huawei by transporting witnesses back to China and allegedly destroying evidence. Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was later released in September 2021 after being detained for three years in Canada, after striking a deal with the U.S. in which she admitted to lying about the company’s business activities in Iran. The U.S. government then announced further charges against Huawei in February 2020, accusing the company of conspiracy to steal trade secrets and alleging Huawei and its subsidiaries have stolen intellectual property from U.S. technology companies in order to bolster their own business. The cases brought Monday are part of a series of charges the DOJ has brought against Chinese nationals involved with the Chinese government, including other alleged efforts to intimidate and harass Chinese dissidents living in the U.S., such as congressional primary candidate Yan Xiong.

Further Reading

Two Arrested and 13 Charged in Three Separate Cases for Alleged Participation in Malign Schemes in the United States on Behalf of the Government of the People’s Republic of China (Department of Justice)

China’s Huawei Charged With Racketeering, Stealing Trade Secrets (Wall Street Journal)

Canada Will Release Huawei Executive In Deal With U.S. (Forbes)

Operation Fox Hunt: How China Exports Repression Using a Network of Spies Hidden in Plain Sight (ProPublica)

Justice Department accuses China of spying on, intimidating dissidents living in U.S. (Reuters)