Skater Alysa Liu competes in the Beijing Winter Olympics.Photo: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Federal charges were filed this week against five people accused of working for China’s secret police to stalk, harass, and spy on Chinese nationals living in the United States — including U.S. Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu and her father.
Fan “Frank” Liu, 62, and Matthew Ziburis, 49, were arrested in New York on Tuesday while Shujun Wang, 73, was detained Wednesday morning,according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Two others individuals — Qiming Lin, 59, and Quiang “Jason” Sun, 40 — remain at large, authorities said.
All five defendants stand accused of threatening and spying on Chinese people residing in the United States who’d expressed opposition to the Chinese Communist Party.
“All of the defendants charged today, at the direction of the PRC secret police, engaged in a series of actions designed to silence the free speech of Chinese dissidents in the United States,” Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael J. Driscoll of the FBI’s New York Field Office said in a statement.
“Transnational repression schemes pose an increasing threat against U.S. residents who choose to speak out against the People’s Republic of China and other regimes,” Driscoll continued. “The FBI is committed to protecting the free speech of all U.S. residents, and we simply will not tolerate the attempts of foreign governments to violate our laws and restrict our freedom.”
Officials allege that Lin worked to unravel the U.S. congressional campaign ofYan Xiong, a U.S. military veteran who was a student leader in the pro-democracy Tiananmen Square protests in China in 1989. Lin allegedly hired a private investigator to look into Xiong, including physically attacking him to keep him from pursuing public office.
Federal investigators contend Wang posed as “a well-known author and activist” to gain the trust of the “Chinese diaspora community in New York City.” In doing so, Wang allegedly collected “information about prominent activists, dissidents, and human rights leaders” and later reported the information to the PRC government.
In addition, “while ostensibly lending a sympathetic ear,” Wang allegedly “reported on statements activists made in confidence to him, including on their views on democracy in the PRC, as well as planned speeches, writings, and demonstrations against the Chinese Communist Party. The victims of Wang’s efforts included individuals and groups located in New York City and elsewhere that the PRC considers subversive, such as Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, advocates for Taiwanese independence, and Uyghur and Tibetan activists, both in the United States and abroad.”
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Federal officials allege the three men attempted to spy on — and ultimately destroy the artwork of — a Chinese national in Los Angeles, California. The victim’s artwork, the charges alleges, was critical of the Chinese government.
He did attend the games with Alysa and she was able to compete thanks to assurances from the State Department and the U.S. Olympic Committee she would be kept safe while in China, where she was provided two escorts with her at all times.
According to Arthur Liu, he received a call in November from a man claiming to be an official with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee asking for his and his daughter’s passport numbers. He refused to provide that information, he told the AP, and instead contacted Olympic officials.
All three criminal cases remain under investigation.
The charges the five defendants face include conspiracy, criminal use of means of identification, conspiracy to commit interstate harassment, conspiring to act as agents of the PRC government, and conspiring to bribe a federal official.
It was unclear Thursday if Wang, Liu, and Ziburis had entered pleas to the charges, and information on their attorneys was unavailable.
source: people.com
