US: New York resident charged with spying for China

https://www.dw.com/en/us-new-york-resident-charged-with-spying-for-china/a-70013080

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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

The US Justice Department has charged a resident of Queens, New York with spying for ChinaImage: Mark Lennihan/AP/picture alliance

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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.