Five Individuals Charged Variously with Stalking, Harassing, and Spying on U.S. Residents on Behalf
Earlier DU thread: U.S. accuses Chinese agent of scheme to undermine congressional candidate
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Source: U.S. Attorney's Office - Eastern District of New York
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Five Individuals Charged Variously with Stalking, Harassing, and Spying on U.S. Residents on Behalf of the PRC Secret Police
The Defendants Participated in Transnational Repression Schemes to Silence Critics of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Residing in the United States and Abroad
Two complaints were unsealed and one amended complaint was authorized today in federal court in Brooklyn charging five defendants with various crimes related to efforts by the secret police of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to stalk, harass, and spy on Chinese nationals residing in Queens, New York and elsewhere in the United States. All of the defendants allegedly perpetrated transnational repression schemes to target U.S. residents whose political views and actions are disfavored by the PRC government, such as advocating for democracy in the PRC. In one of these schemes, the coconspirators sought to interfere with federal elections by allegedly orchestrating a campaign to undermine the U.S. congressional candidacy of a U.S. military veteran who was a leader of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing, PRC. In another of these schemes, three defendants planned to destroy the artwork of a PRC national residing in Los Angeles, California that was critical of the PRC government, and planted surveillance equipment in the artist’s workplace and car to spy on him from the PRC.
Fan “Frank” Liu and Matthew Ziburis were arrested yesterday, while Shujun Wang was arrested this morning. All three arrests occurred in the Eastern District of New York. The defendants’ initial appearances are scheduled this afternoon in Brooklyn before United States Magistrate Judge James R. Cho. The other two defendants remain at large.
Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Matthew G. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, Alan E. Kohler, Jr., Assistant Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Counterintelligence Division (FBI), and Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director-in-Charge, FBI, New York Field Office, announced the arrests and charges.
“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,” stated United States Attorney Peace. “As alleged, all three cases involve campaigns to silence, harass, discredit and spy on U.S. residents for simply exercising their freedom of speech. The United States will not tolerate blatantly illegal actions that target U.S. residents, on U.S. soil, and undermine our treasured American values and rights.”
“Transnational repression harms people in the United States and around the world and threatens the rule of law itself,” said Assistant Attorney General Olsen. “This activity is antithetical to fundamental American values, and we will not tolerate it when it violates U.S. law. The Department of Justice will defend the rights of Americans and those who come to live, work, and study in the United States. We will not allow any foreign government to impede their freedom of speech, to deny them the protection of our laws, or to threaten their safety or the safety of their families.”
“The Ministry of State Security is more than an intelligence collection agency. It executes the Chinese government’s efforts to limit free speech, attack dissidents, and preserve the power of the Communist Party,” stated FBI Assistant Director Kohler. ....
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Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/five-individuals-charged-variously-stalking-harassing-and-spying-us-residents-behalf