Members of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) security and intelligence apparatus and their agents are among 13 individuals charged by the U.S. Department of Justice for alleged efforts made in the U.S. to benefit the Chinese government, the DOJ announced recently.
The DOJ brought the charges against the 13 in three separate cases in the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Eastern District of New York and the District of New Jersey, the department announced Oct. 24. An eight-count indictment was unsealed Oct. 20 in the Eastern District of New York, charging seven PRC nationals with a forced-repatriation scheme known as "Operation Fox Hunt," the announcement reports. The defendants, two of whom were arrested, allegedly surveilled, harassed and coerced a U.S. resident to return to the PRC, according to the DOJ.
On the same date, charges were brought against two PRC intelligence officers for attempting to obstruct a criminal prosecution; the defendants in that case are still at large, according to the DOJ.
In the indictment unsealed Oct. 20 in the District of New Jersey, four Chinese Nationals, including three intelligence officers with China's Ministry of State Security, were charged in an intelligence campaign to recruit individuals in the U.S. to become PRC agents.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the cases showed that the Chinese government "sought to interfere with the rights and freedoms of individuals in the United States and to undermine our judicial system that protects those rights. They did not succeed."
“The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by any foreign power to undermine the Rule of Law upon which our democracy is based," Garland said in the report. "We will continue to fiercely protect the rights guaranteed to everyone in our country. And we will defend the integrity of our institutions.”
Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, said the indictments "for trying to obstruct a U.S. trial of a Chinese company, masquerading as university professors to steal sensitive information, and trying to strong-arm a victim into returning to China again expose the PRC’s outrageous behavior within our own borders,” the statement reports.
Wray said the FBI and its partners and allies will "continue to throw the full weight" of law enforcement and counterintelligence against the PRC's criminal activities in the U.S.
The indictments "take place against a backdrop of malign activity from the government of the People’s Republic of China that includes espionage, attempts to disrupt our justice system, harassment of individuals, and ongoing efforts to steal sensitive U.S. technology,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said in the report.
“The men and women of the Department of Justice will continue to defend the United States, our institutions, and our people from foreign threats that violate the law," Monaco said, "no matter what form they take.”
