Five people accused of representing the Chinese government have been charged with cheating and harassing Chinese dissidents in the United States.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Five men accused of representing the Chinese government have been charged with conspiracy to overthrow the Chinese opposition in the United States, including conspiracy to disrupt a secret election campaign. A congressional candidate, Justice said on Wednesday.
The accusations highlight what US officials describe as China’s growing aggression – sometimes involving the use of independent observers – to search for, silence, and intimidate pro-democracy activists abroad.
“Superpowers around the world dare to go beyond their borders to intimidate or retaliate against people who dare to speak out against tyranny and corruption,” Matthew Olsen, the chief of national security at the Department of Justice, told a news conference three criminal charges.
He added: “This practice violates core US values.” “We cannot tolerate such repression here if it violates our rules.”
Criminal charges before the Brooklyn Federal Court alleviate ongoing efforts to defame, intimidate and silence protesters. This is not the first time the Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the same practice: in 2020, prosecutors accused eight people of being forced to campaign for the Chinese government to force a wanted New Jersey man in Beijing to return to China before the prosecution.
In a recent case, two New York men who worked for an international technology company based in China spied on protesters, illegally searched and captured and distributed an opposition coalition tax, and conspired to destroy singer-songwriter skills, the prosecutor said. A statue of Chinese President Xi Jinping as a coronavirus colonel was unveiled last year, although no one has been accused of vandalism, the ministry said.
Two of the three men involved in the case, Fan “Frank” Liu and Matthew Ziburi, were arrested on Tuesday on charges of conspiracy to commit genocide and use criminal means. Liu’s lawyer claimed in court that his client was not threatened with flying and was released electronically for a million dollars. Zuri was released on bail of $ 500,000.
The third man, Qiang “Jason” Sun, who was allegedly fired by prosecutors, is missing.
In a joint statement by U.S. officials in the Chinese Department of Homeland Security, the secretary who helped create the pro-democracy movement gathered the Chinese government’s shared wisdom against dissidents, Uighurs, Tibetans, and Taiwanese freedom fighters.
The man, 73-year-old Shujun Wang, was arrested Wednesday and released for $ 300,000. The defense did not immediately return a text message seeking an answer.
The third action, brought by a Chinese government official, sought to interfere with a congressional session in an attempt to seek or fabricate defamatory remarks that could prevent him from running.
An employee named Qiming Lin is accused of meeting an independent investigator who sought information about the representative’s phone numbers, address, and vehicle. He later asked the investigator to “investigate the case from 1989 to the present day” to find the opposition candidate guilty of his removal.
On one occasion, according to billing documents, Lin told an independent investigator that “violence would also be good” and argued that the candidate could be beaten “until he could not compete.”
Investigator Lini is accused of arresting a former FBI agent who announced the first step in office and said he thanked Lini as a retired representative for MSS. The FBI investigating agent wrote in his testimony that “Based on the brief approach here and my experience and training, I will verify that LIN continued to represent MSS even though he appeared to have resigned.”
The ambassador is described in court documents as a Chinese protester and student leader during a 1989 Tiananmen Square protest. Although the representative is not named in the complaint, the biography of the document is similar to that of Yan Xiong, who was last killed. to be a Democrat in this year’s congressional election.
Officials said he, who had been charged, including a conspiracy to commit atrocities in the country, would remain in place.
Brooklyn Attorney General Breon Peace did not explain the authorities’ possible talks with Yan but said the Department of Justice was taking its responsibilities seriously in identifying the victims. “If it’s violent,” he said, “don’t let our office and the FBI do it.”
Yan, who has lived in the United States for 30 years, said in an interview that he was unaware of the incident and became aware of it after journalists contacted him on Wednesday.
He said he had not seen any harassment or intimidation and had not been contacted by the FBI or the Department of Justice and did not know why the Chinese government was interested in their congressional campaign.
“Then it just came to our attention. He added: “I’m crazy. I have nothing to do with them. I’m a real American citizen.”