Two people were arrested on Monday for helping the Chinese government set up a secret police station in New York City, and nearly three dozen officers from China’s national police force to harass dissidents inside the United States. was accused of using social media to
The cases, taken together, are part of a series of Justice Department lawsuits in recent years aimed at disrupting the Chinese government’s efforts to track down pro-democracy activists and others in the US who openly oppose Beijing’s policies. are generally critical and to suppress his speech.
One of the three cases announced Monday relates to a local branch of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, which operated inside an office building in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood before closing last fall amid an FBI investigation.
According to the Justice Department, the two men who were arrested were acting under the direction and control of a Chinese government official and deleted communications with that official from their phones after learning about the FBI investigation.
violation of national sovereignty
“This is a flagrant violation of our national sovereignty,” Michael Driscoll, chief of the FBI field office in New York, told a news conference.
The men, identified as “Harry” Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx, and Chen Jinping, 59, of Manhattan, both US citizens, were arrested from their homes on Monday morning. Deirdre Vondernum, the attorney representing Lu, declined to comment. An email message seeking comment was left with Chen’s attorney.
US law enforcement officials said that at no point did the men register with the Justice Department as agents of any foreign government. And although the secret police station performed some basic services, such as helping Chinese citizens renew their Chinese driver’s licenses, it also performed more “sinister” tasks, including helping the Chinese government to deport Chinese-origin residents of California. This included helping to locate a pro-democracy activist. , officials said.
“New York City is home to the best of New York: the NYPD,” U.S. Attorney Brion Peace, the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, said at a press conference announcing the arrests. great city.”
In recent years, Justice Department officials have prioritized prosecuting what is known as “international repression,” in which foreign governments identify, intimidate, and silence dissidents in the United States.
A signature case related to China was announced in 2020, when the Justice Department charged more than half a dozen people acting on behalf of the Chinese government in a pressure campaign aimed at a New Jersey man facing threats from Beijing. To force him to return to China. charge. In January, the Justice Department indicted three men in an alleged conspiracy to kill an Iranian American author and activist who spoke out against human rights abuses in Iran.
34 officers accused of creating fake social media accounts
“In America, the law protects us all equally from oppression, violence, and threats of violence as authoritarian governments – whether the PRC, Russia, Iran, or others – become more brazen in their efforts to trample on the rights and freedoms that are the foundation of our democracy,” said David Newman, a top official in the Justice Department’s National Security Division, using an acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
In a separate plan announced Monday, the Justice Department charged 34 officials in the Ministry of Public Security with creating and using fake social media accounts to harass dissidents abroad. Prosecutors say the defendants also used social media to spread Chinese government propaganda and to try to recruit US citizens to act as Chinese agents. All the accused are absconding and believed to be living in China.
In addition, prosecutors announced Monday that eight Chinese government officials, who are believed to be currently living in China, directed an employee of a US telecommunications company to remove Chinese dissidents from the company’s platform. was accused of giving.
Julian Jin, a former China-based Zoom executive, was among 10 people charged in the scheme. He was first charged in December 2020, when authorities alleged he tried to disrupt a series of Zoom meetings in May and June of that year to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. At the time, the executive served as Zoom’s primary liaison with the Chinese government’s law enforcement and intelligence services, officials said, regularly responding to calls by the Chinese government to end meetings and block users on Zoom’s video communications platform. Responded to requests.
(with inputs from AP)
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