US federal justice announced on Wednesday May 18 the indictment for espionage of four Chinese agents who remained in their country and of an American of Chinese origin arrested in the United States in March.
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This 73-year-old professor, Shujun Wang, born in China and naturalized American, is accused of having provided Beijing, via four agents of the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), with information on opponents and defenders of democracy and human rights in Hong Kong, Taiwan, for Uyghurs and for Tibet, according to a statement from federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, Breon Peace and Matthew Olsen.
Suspicion of espionage
Co-founder of a New York organization considered critical of the Chinese regime, Shujun Wang is suspected of having used his social status to gather information on pro-democracy activists in the United States, which he then delivered by encrypted messaging and emails to four agents in Beijing.
These four Chinese officials were also charged with espionage in their absence and are named Feng He, Jie Ji, Ming Li and Keqing Lu, according to American justice.
Prosecutors praise in their press release that they have “
uncovered and countered a People's Republic of China (PRC) operation that threatens the safety and freedom of Chinese nationals residing in the United States because of their pro-democracy beliefs
".
Defamation campaign
“
We will not tolerate any attempt by the PRC or any authoritarian regime to export any repressive practice to our country
,” Deputy Prosecutor Olsen warned.
Shujun Wang, who will appear for a hearing later, faces up to 20 years in prison and was arrested on March 16 in New York, in connection with the revelation by American justice of several espionage cases targeting Beijing.
One relates to a smear campaign of a former Tiananmen protester, a refugee in the United States in 1992, a naturalized American and who, after having served in the American military, is seeking a seat in the House of Representatives of Congress.
It is probably, according to the press, Yan Xiong, in the running to represent the State of New York.
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According to justice, Qiming Lin, a retired policeman suspected of working for the MSS, recruited a private detective in the United States to monitor the candidate and discredit him.
Another case targets Fan Liu, head of a communications company, and Matthew Ziburis, a bodyguard, arrested in March in New York.
They are also accused of having spied on Chinese opponents in the United States and of having carried out a campaign of defamation against them.