Chinese Officer Charged With Harassing N.Y. Congressional Candidate
Yan Xiong, a Chinese dissident who immigrated to America and is now a political candidate in New York, was targeted by an agent of the Chinese government, federal prosecutors said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/nyregion/china-target-congress-campaign.html?smid=url-share
Five people acting as agents of the Chinese secret police stalked and harassed American-based Chinese critics of the Beijing government — including a candidate for Congress in New York, a California-based artist, and the father of an Olympic figure skater — in an effort to silence dissident voices, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
In three criminal complaints unsealed Wednesday by the Justice Department, prosecutors described a series of attempts, some lasting years, to spy on or intimidate dozens of Chinese American dissidents and others living all over the United States.
Three of the accused agents lived in Long Island or Queens — their activities centered on New York City, but some extended to other states. The three were arrested this week and appeared in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday evening, while two other defendants remain at large in China, prosecutors said.
The allegations show the extent to which U.S. officials believe Chinese spy agencies will go to retrieve information about critics of the government. In one of the cases, prosecutors accused a prominent Queens-based democracy activist of working secretly as a Chinese spy for more than 15 years.
The charges are the latest in a series of Justice Department cases that center on efforts by the Chinese government to infiltrate the United States and monitor and harass individuals or communities that are considered political opponents of China.
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