The American authorities announced Thursday July 22 to have indicted two additional Chinese nationals for their role in an operation dubbed “
Fox Hunt
” which, under cover of fight against corruption, targets opponents refugees abroad.
Read also: Cyber attacks: the United States and its allies will jointly condemn China's "malicious" activities
In October, several
Chinese
"
agents
" had been indicted, and five arrested on American soil, for having carried out a campaign of intimidation against one of their compatriot living in the United States.
A new indictment, released Thursday, targets two more Chinese, including a 50-year-old prosecutor, Tu Lan, suspected of having come to the United States in 2017 to lead this “
campaign of harassment
”.
Opponents, dissidents or critics as targets
According to the US authorities, Operation
Fox Hunt
involves
extrajudicial “
repatriation brigades
”, which operate in secret to try to force expatriate Chinese to return to China.
Officially, their targets are people wanted by Chinese justice, often for corruption.
But for Washington, they are in fact opponents of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, dissidents or critics.
In the present case, the indictment relates to the harassment for several years of a victim living in the United States, whose name is not made public.
Read also: Chinese money no longer flows abroad
According to the document, the agents arranged for his father to come to the United States in order to locate him, filmed his adult daughter to exert pressure on him and sent him threatening messages. In particular, they are suspected of having plastered the following note on his door: "
If you are ready to come home and spend ten years in prison, your wife and children will be fine." End of the story!
According to the American authorities, they did not achieve their goals. They are notably prosecuted for being "
undeclared agents
" of China, a charge punishable by ten years in prison.
