{"id":222710,"date":"2022-03-17T18:51:36","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T22:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/supchina.com\/?p=222710"},"modified":"2023-01-25T13:44:25","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T18:44:25","slug":"justice-department-accuses-five-people-of-intimidating-chinese-dissidents-in-the-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/2022\/03\/17\/justice-department-accuses-five-people-of-intimidating-chinese-dissidents-in-the-united-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Department accuses five people of intimidating Chinese dissidents in the United States"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- Output copied to clipboard! --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Yay, no errors, warnings, or alerts! --><\/p>\n<p>\nOn Wednesday, federal prosecutors <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/five-individuals-charged-variously-stalking-harassing-and-spying-us-residents-behalf-prc-0\">accused<\/a> five individuals of intimidating and harassing Chinese dissidents living in the United States, including a congressional candidate from New York.\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThe complaints unsealed today reveal the outrageous and dangerous lengths to which the P.R.C. government\u2019s secret police and these defendants have gone to attack the rule of law,\u201d New York\u2013based U.S. attorney Breon Peace stated in the report.\n<li>One of the complaints alleged that a Chinese citizen by the name of Q\u01d0m\u00edng L\u00edn \u6797\u542f\u660e  hired a private investigator to \u201cdisrupt the campaign\u201d of a former U.S. Army member who participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. The candidate was not identified in court documents, but fits the description of Brooklyn-based Xi\u00f3ng Y\u00e0n \u718a\u7131, who is running in the Democratic primary for New York\u2019s 1st Congressional district, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/03\/16\/five-suspects-charged-targeting-chinese-dissidents-u-s-00017912\">per Politico<\/a>.\n<li>Other targets included Arthur Liu, a lawyer and political activist in the San Francisco Bay area, as well as the father of the Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n<strong>Three defendants \u201cplanned to destroy the artwork <\/strong>of a PRC national residing in Los Angeles that was critical of the PRC government, and planted surveillance equipment in the artist\u2019s workplace and car to spy on him from the PRC,\u201d according to the DoJ.\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The artwork in question appears to be this <strong>sculpture of Xi Jinpjng\u2019s head as a coronavirus<\/strong> in a sculpture park next to a California highway, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/paulmozur\/status\/1504244497718206467\">as documented by New York Times journalist Paul Mozur<\/a>.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"mailchimp-shortcode\"><div class=\"mailchimp-shortcode--inner\"><h2 class=\"h2\">China news, weekly.<\/h2><p>Sign up for The China Project&#8217;s weekly newsletter, our free roundup of the most important China stories.<\/p>\n<form method=\"post\" id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" name=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" class=\"validate js-landing-page-form js-subscribe-form\" target=\"_blank\" novalidate>\n        <div class=\"newsletter-hero__email-wrap\">\n            <label for=\"spch-email\" class=\"screen-reader-text\">Enter your email address<\/label>\n            <input class=\"multinews__input multinews__input--email\" id=\"spch-email\" aria-describedby=\"spch-fineprint\" type=\"email\" placeholder=\"Enter your email address\" name=\"email\" required><!-- inline-block fix-->\n            <button class=\"multinews__submit btn prime js-subscribe-form-submit\" id=\"js-multinews-submit\">\n                <t>Subscribe<\/t>\n            <\/button>\n            <div id=\"spch-fineprint\" class=\"multinews__fineprint\">\n\t\t\t\t<p>By subscribing you agree to our <a href=\"\/privacy-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\">privacy policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n        <\/div><!-- .newsletter-hero__email-wrap -->\n        <div style=\"position: absolute; left: -5000px;\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"\" tabindex=\"-1\" value=\"\"><\/div>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"newsletter\" value=\"chinaweekly\">\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"tcpr_subscribe_form_nonce\" value=\"07aa6ca7cb\">\n    <\/form><\/div><\/div>\n<p>\n<strong>The cases expose attempts by Beijing \u201cto suppress dissenting voices<\/strong> within the United States\u2026and attempts to stalk, intimidate and silence those who oppose them,&#8221; Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/speech\/assistant-attorney-general-matthew-olsen-delivers-remarks-press-conference-announcing\">told<\/a> a news conference on Wednesday.\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Justice Department \u201cremains focused on the actions of the P.R.C. government and its agents \u2014 not the Chinese people or those of Chinese descent, who are often the victims of these crimes,\u201d Olsen stated.\n<li>Last month, Olsen led the <a href=\"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/2022\/02\/24\/doj-scraps-the-china-initiative\/\">abandonment of the China Initiative<\/a>, the Trump-era Justice Department program that faced widespread criticism for stoking anti-China sentiment and discrimination against people of Chinese origin.\n<li>Similar cases were filed by the Justice Department <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/10\/28\/us\/politics\/china-harassment-fugitives.html\">nearly two years ago<\/a>, citing efforts by the Chinese government to infiltrate the United States and monitor and harass those considered political opponents of China.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nForeign Ministry spokesperson Zh\u00e0o L\u00ecji\u0101n \u8d75\u7acb\u575a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fmprc.gov.cn\/mfa_eng\/xwfw_665399\/s2510_665401\/2511_665403\/202203\/t20220317_10652759.html\">urged<\/a> the U.S. to stop \u201csmearing against China\u201d and \u201c\u200b\u200babandon the Cold War mentality and ideological bias\u201d when asked by the Associated Press on the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five people have been charged by the United States Department of Justice for intimidating U.S.-based Chinese dissidents on behalf of the People&#8217;s Republic of China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19964,"featured_media":222711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12902],"tags":[14425,13406,14156,18826,18829,13925,18827,18828,16004,18825],"column":[],"class":[],"coauthors":[18088],"acf":[],"la_post_categories":{"politics-and-current-affairs":"Politics &amp; Current Affairs"},"la_post_tags":{"access":"Access","censorship":"censorship","china":"China","chinese-agents":"Chinese agents","dissent":"dissent","espionage":"espionage","intimidation":"intimidation","spies":"spies","spying":"spying","united-states-department-of-justice":"United States Department of Justice"},"content_writeup":{"rendered":"<p><!-- Output copied to clipboard! --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Yay, no errors, warnings, or alerts! --><\/p>\n<p>\nOn Wednesday, federal prosecutors <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/five-individuals-charged-variously-stalking-harassing-and-spying-us-residents-behalf-prc-0\">accused<\/a> five individuals of intimidating and harassing Chinese dissidents living in the United States, including a congressional candidate from New York.\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThe complaints unsealed today reveal the outrageous and dangerous lengths to which the P.R.C. government\u2019s secret police and these defendants have gone to attack the rule of law,\u201d New York\u2013based U.S. attorney Breon Peace stated in the report.\n<li>One of the complaints alleged that a Chinese citizen by the name of Q\u01d0m\u00edng L\u00edn \u6797\u542f\u660e  hired a private investigator to \u201cdisrupt the campaign\u201d of a former U.S. Army member who participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. The candidate was not identified in court documents, but fits the description of Brooklyn-based Xi\u00f3ng Y\u00e0n \u718a\u7131, who is running in the Democratic primary for New York\u2019s 1st Congressional district, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/03\/16\/five-suspects-charged-targeting-chinese-dissidents-u-s-00017912\">per Politico<\/a>.\n<li>Other targets included Arthur Liu, a lawyer and political activist in the San Francisco Bay area, as well as the father of the Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n<strong>Three defendants \u201cplanned to destroy the artwork <\/strong>of a PRC national residing in Los Angeles that was critical of the PRC government, and planted surveillance equipment in the artist\u2019s workplace and car to spy on him from the PRC,\u201d according to the DoJ.\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The artwork in question appears to be this <strong>sculpture of Xi Jinpjng\u2019s head as a coronavirus<\/strong> in a sculpture park next to a California highway, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/paulmozur\/status\/1504244497718206467\">as documented by New York Times journalist Paul Mozur<\/a>.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n<strong>The cases expose attempts by Beijing \u201cto suppress dissenting voices<\/strong> within the United States\u2026and attempts to stalk, intimidate and silence those who oppose them,&#8221; Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/speech\/assistant-attorney-general-matthew-olsen-delivers-remarks-press-conference-announcing\">told<\/a> a news conference on Wednesday.\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Justice Department \u201cremains focused on the actions of the P.R.C. government and its agents \u2014 not the Chinese people or those of Chinese descent, who are often the victims of these crimes,\u201d Olsen stated.\n<li>Last month, Olsen led the <a href=\"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/2022\/02\/24\/doj-scraps-the-china-initiative\/\">abandonment of the China Initiative<\/a>, the Trump-era Justice Department program that faced widespread criticism for stoking anti-China sentiment and discrimination against people of Chinese origin.\n<li>Similar cases were filed by the Justice Department <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/10\/28\/us\/politics\/china-harassment-fugitives.html\">nearly two years ago<\/a>, citing efforts by the Chinese government to infiltrate the United States and monitor and harass those considered political opponents of China.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nForeign Ministry spokesperson Zh\u00e0o L\u00ecji\u0101n \u8d75\u7acb\u575a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fmprc.gov.cn\/mfa_eng\/xwfw_665399\/s2510_665401\/2511_665403\/202203\/t20220317_10652759.html\">urged<\/a> the U.S. to stop \u201csmearing against China\u201d and \u201c\u200b\u200babandon the Cold War mentality and ideological bias\u201d when asked by the Associated Press on the matter.<\/p>\n"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222710"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19964"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222710"},{"taxonomy":"column","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/column?post=222710"},{"taxonomy":"class","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/class?post=222710"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechinaproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=222710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}