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US: New York resident charged with spying for China

August 22, 2024

A US national of Chinese origin has been accused of spying on Chinese dissidents for Beijing's MSS intelligence service. He had taken part in China's 1989 pro-democracy movement and was later granted US asylum.

https://p.dw.com/p/4jlbE
US Justice Department sign on building
The US Justice Department has charged a resident of Queens, New York with spying for ChinaImage: Mark Lennihan/AP/picture alliance

A New York resident of Chinese origin has been charged with operating as an illegal agent for Beijing, the US Justice Department said.

US national Tang Yuanjun is accused of spying on Chinese pro-democracy activists and dissidents in the US and providing information to Chinese intelligence services between 2018 to 2023, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.

What is Tang accused of?

US authorities accused Tang of completing "tasks at the direction of [China's] Ministry of State Security (MSS), which is [China's] principal civilian intelligence agency."

Tang allegedly provided Chinese intelligence officials with information on "individuals and groups viewed by [Beijing] as potentially adverse" to its interests, including "prominent US-based Chinese democracy activists and dissidents."

The department also accused him of falsely claiming to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that he no longer had access to the email account he used to communicate with his MSS handler.

Authorities in Western countries have increasingly accused Beijing of engaging in surveillance of Chinese diaspora communities. Earlier this month, a Chinese-American academic, also a New York resident, was convicted of spying for Beijing.

Two people under green umbrella look out at Taiwan's Kinmen Island
Tang fled to the Taipei-administered Kinmen Islands before receiving asylum in the USImage: Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images

Who is Tang Yuanjun?

Tang, 67, is a native of China's northeastern Jilin province who took part in the country's 1989 democracy movement. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his participation in the movement and ultimately served eight years.

He later swam to the island of Dadan, which lies near the coast of the Chinese mainland but is governed by Taiwan as part of the Kinmen islands, and was granted political asylum in the United States.

Tang is a resident of the New York City borough of Queens and is a naturalized US citizen. He no longer has Chinese citizenship.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy to the US was cited by the Reuters news agency as saying he was unaware of the details of the case and that China requires its citizens abroad to comply with the laws and regulations of the host country.

China firmly opposed "groundlessly slandering and smearing" that targeted the country, the spokesperson said.

sdi/rmt (AFP, Reuters)