Ex-Democracy Activist in US Charged with Spying for China
New York federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged an individual living in the US with conspiring to act, and acting as an unregistered agent, between 2018 and 2023 at the direction of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS)....
Facts
- New York federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged an individual living in the US with conspiring to act, and acting as an unregistered agent, between 2018 and 2023 at the direction of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS).[1][2]
- According to the US Department of Justice's (DoJ) naturalized American citizen Yuanjun Tang, who defected from China to Taiwan in 2003 before being granted political asylum in the US, 'regularly' received MSS instructions and supplied information on US-based Chinese democracy activists.[3]
- Tang has also been charged with making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after claiming that he no longer had access to the email account used to communicate with the MSS.[4][5]
- It has been reported that, prior to his defection, Tang had been sentenced to 20 years in prison in China for his role in the country's 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement, though was released after eight.[6][7]
- US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, alleged that Tang had 'used his position as a leader among pro-democracy activists' to collect information for Beijing, describing the behavior as 'harmful to the sovereignty of the United States.'[8]
- The three charges Tang faces carry a cumulative maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if found guilty.[3]
Sources: [1]FOX News, [2]CBS, [3]United States Department of Justice (a), [4]Newsmax, [5]NBC, [6]BBC News, [7]CNA and [8]United States Department of Justice (b).
Narratives
- Republican narrative, as provided by The Hill. Despite open acknowledgement of the scale and intent of China's intelligence and espionage operations, the US continues to provide an inadequate response to the security threat Beijing poses to the international order. Unless Washington changes its attitude towards the CIA and begins treating the organization with a similar level of urgency and importance as the Pentagon, American security will continue to be undermined at the hands of its international competitors.
- Pro-China narrative, as provided by Chinadaily.com.cn. America's accusations of espionage are merely a veil for the CIA's own malicious intelligence-gathering activities across the world. Much like its interventionist behavior in Ukraine and Gaza, the US remains insistent on pointing the blame elsewhere while simultaneously sowing discontent and destabilizing the international community for personal gain.
