U.S. Department of Justice arrests New York man, accuses him of working as a Chinese agent

The U.S. Department of Justice announced in a news release Thursday there had been an arrest made of a New York man who was allegedly selling information to the People’s Republic of China’s communist government.

A naturalized citizen of the U.S. residing in Queens, Yuanjun Tang was charged by criminal complaint with acting and conspiring to act in the U.S. as an unregistered foreign agent of China, and making false statements to the FBI.

The DOJ stated court documents showed Tang was a former Chinese citizen, but was imprisoned by the Chinese Communist Party for opposing the one-party system in China. Tang defected to Taiwan in 2002, and was granted political asylum in the U.S.

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After settling into New York, Tang was an active participant in his community, often attending demonstrations against the CCP. However, sometime between 2018 and 2023, Tang allegedly acted as an agent for China’s Ministry of State Security – which is responsible for China’s foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, espionage, and political security functions.

Tang is accused of using an encrypted email account, chats, text messages, and audio and video calls to regularly interact with the Chinese ministry, travelling at least three times to China to meet with intelligence agents. Tang is accused of reporting to the ministry about Chinese individuals living in the U.S. who had opposing views to China’s political stance.

Using his position, he infiltrated Chinese dissident group chats on encrypted messaging applications, while law enforcement recovered instructions from the ministry, prosecutors allege. Numerous electronic devices belonging to Tang also reportedly included videos, documents, and photographs that he had collected to send to the ministry.

The news release further stated Tang had made false statements to the FBI, claiming he was unable to access email accounts he used to communicate with Chinese officials. He is charged with a single count of conspiring to work as a foreign agent without notifying the attorney general, and he could face up to five years in prison. Tang faces another possible 10-year sentence for acting as an agent, and another five years for making false statements.

A telecommunications and information technology worker for Verizon was arrested in late July, and was charged with working for the CCP as an agent – and instructed to gather information on Chinese dissidents and the Falun Gong religious movement. He faces a possible sentence of 15 years in prison.

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