According to the Department of Justice five men who worked within the U.S. in support of the Chinese secret cop stalked, harassed or spied on Chinese dissidents as well as pro-democracy activists in the U.S. According to the Department of Justice, all five men are accused. “allegedly perpetrated transnational repression to target U.S. residents whose political views and actions are disfavored by the [Peoples’ Republic of China] government,”According to the DOJ.
“The complaints unsealed today reveal the outrageous and dangerous lengths to which the PRC government’s secret police and these defendants have gone to attack the rule of law and freedom in New York City and elsewhere in the United States,”U.S. attorney Breon Peace for Eastern District of New York made these remarks in a DOJ-issued statement.
Qiming Lin (59), is one of the accused. He is accused of trying to interfere with the election campaign of a Brooklyn resident running to Congress. Lin had been a leader in Tiananmen Square protests for democracy in 1989, before fleeing to the U.S. to become an American citizen.
The candidate matches Yan Xiong’s description. He is currently running for a New York House of Representatives seat. Wall Street Journal reported.
Lin allegedly hired a private investigator and asked the investigator to either uncover a scandal or “manufacture something”This would be detrimental to the campaign of Brooklyn resident. We offer suggestions, “see how he goes for prostitution, take some photos,”According to the DOJ, the DOJ cited an exchange between the two.
Lin also allegedly left a voicemail to the private investigator saying, “Aside from violence, what other plans are there? But in the end, violence would be fine, too,”According to the DOJ statement.
Lin was charged with interstate harassment conspiracy and conspiracy to attempt to use a method of identification in connection to the interstate harass conspiracy. Officials confirmed that Lin had been charged. Lin has not been arrested.
Another instance of harassment centered around Arthur Liu, the father of two-time U.S. Olympic Figure Skater Alysa Liu.
Fan “Frank”Liu, Qiang “Jason”Sun and Matthew Ziburis (a former correctional officer for Florida and a bodyguard) allegedly tried to get into the Liu family by pretending they were members of an international sporting committee.
DOJ didn’t name the victims, but Arthur Liu said that he was one of the victims in an interview with Associated Press Associated Press.
“I’m going to continue to enjoy life and live life as I want to live. I’m not going to let this push me down and I’m not going to let them succeed,” Liu said. He said that while he was aware of the threats against him, he did not share the information with his teenage daughter ahead of her travel to Beijing to compete in the most recent Olympic games, where she placed seventh in the women’s event.
“I had concerns about her safety. The U.S. government did a good job protecting her,”He said.
Alysa (16 years old) did tell her dad that she had an unusual interaction with a stranger at the Olympic Games. While in China, she said she was followed by a stranger after a free skate event, who asked her to go to his apartment, the AP reported.
Fan “Frank” Liu, Sun and Ziburis, are also separately accused of installing surveillance cameras and GPS devices in the work and car of an artist while pretending to be an interested buyer, and interviewing dissidents for a fake media outlet meant to be used in Chinese propaganda materials.
Authorities said Ziburis was charged with conspiracy to commit interstate harassing and criminal use a means for identification. According to the AP he was released with a $500,000 bond.
Fan “Frank”According to the DOJ, Liu was also accused of trying to bribe federal officials in connection to their scheme for tax returns to be obtained from a prodemocracy activist who resides in the United States. Through a Chinese interpreter, he denied the allegations and was released on $1 million bond.
According to the DOJ statement, Sun is still at large
According to the DOJ statement, Shunjun Wang (73) was also charged with acting as an agent for the PRC government, criminal identification and making materially falsified statements in connection to his participation in a transnational suppression scheme orchestrated by MSS.
In another case, Wang was accused by the DOJ in leveraging his position in China to collect information about dissidents based here in New York City. These activists included those representing the interests of people in Hong Kong and Taiwan as well Uyghurs, an ethnic Turkic group originating in and culturally linked with the Central and East Asia region.
Wang’s April 2020 reporting to Chinese government officials led to the arrest of a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist in Hong Kong on political charges, the DOJ said.
Wang was arrested and charged with acting as an agent of the Peoples’ Republic of China government, the DOJ statement read. According to the WSJ he was released under a $300,000 bond.
Chinese officials claimed they were “not aware of the specifics”The allegations were surrounded by controversy and they claimed they are “firmly opposed to the U.S. slandering by making an issue of this out of thin air,” according to the AP.
“China always asks Chinese citizens to abide by the laws and regulations of host countries, and we would never ask our citizens to engage in activities that violate local laws. The so-called transnational harassment schemes are just trumped up,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told AP reporters Thursday.
Lawyers for the three defendants did not respond to the Wall Street Journal’s request for comment.
