The Department of Justice announced that 34 officers in the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are being charged with “transnational repression schemes” revolving around Chinese nationals who live in the U.S. including the New York metropolitan area.
According to a release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York, the officers of PRC’s national police have allegedly been harassing the Chinese nationals whose political views and actions go against the PRC government. This includes calling for democracy. The officers being charged are believed to live in PRC and are still at large.
“As alleged, the Chinese government deploys an elite task force of its national police—the 912 Special Project Working Group—as a troll farm to attack Chinese dissidents in our country for exercising free speech in a manner that the PRC government disfavors, and spread disinformation and propaganda to sow divisions within the United States,” stated United States Attorney Breon Peace. “I commend the investigative team for comprehensively revealing the insidiousness of a state-directed criminal scheme directed at residents of the United States.”
According to various news reports including Time, members of the national police force of China called “912 Special Project Working Group” have been accused of running “trill farms” on social media like Facebook and Twitter, which U.S. Attorney Peace referred to. The group allegedly used fake profiles to disseminate pro-China propaganda and also attack Chinese dissidents, while attempting to discredit anti-China messages. The actions were intended to fuel political and social unrest in democratic nations.
“These cases demonstrate the lengths the PRC government will go to silence and harass U.S. persons who exercise their fundamental rights to speak out against PRC oppression, including by unlawfully exploiting a U.S.-based technology company,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said in the release by the DOJ. “These actions violate our laws and are an affront to our democratic values and basic human rights.
According to the Justice Department, the Chinese national police, MPS, is responsible for directing propaganda and official narratives. This includes promoting the Chinese Communist Party’s superiority over democracy, as well as criticizing the domestic and foreign policies of the U.S. It also includes human rights issues in Hong Kong and Xinjiang Province, which have long been controversial.
Other topics include the Russian invasion of Ukraine, civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd, and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“China’s Ministry of Public Security used operatives to target people of Chinese descent who had the courage to speak out against the Chinese Communist Party – in one case by covertly spreading propaganda to undermine confidence in our democratic processes and, in another, by suppressing U.S. video conferencing users’ free speech,” stated FBI Acting Assistant Director Ronnow, according to the United States Attorney's Office. “We aren’t going to tolerate CCP repression – its efforts to threaten, harass, and intimidate people – here in the United States. The FBI will continue to confront the Chinese government’s efforts to violate our laws and repress the rights and freedoms of people in our country.”
