NEWS//U.S. accuses 5 of spying for China
The U.S. Justice Department has accused five men of acting on behalf of the Chinese government to stalk and harass Chinese dissidents in the United States.
American officials claim the Chinese government is exerting increasingly aggressive efforts— sometimes involving the use of hired private investigators — to seek out, silence and threaten pro-democracy activists abroad.
One of the men charged is accused of having contacted a private investigator seeking information about a candidate for a New York Democratic congressional seat. The candidate isa naturalized citizen from China who is a Chinese dissident and student leader of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. The man accused by the Justice Departments sought information about the candidate’s phone number, address, and vehicle. He also wanted the investigator to “dig up things from 1989 to now” in search of flaws against the candidate to derail his candidacy.
Another example includes U.S. Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu and her father Arthur Liu. Arthur Liu is a former political refugee from China. The American Justice Department alleges they were targets of a spying operation by the Chinese government.
The "victims were targeted because of their pro-democracy views," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said during a March 16 press briefing. He added that the defendants are accused of "conspiring to act as agents of the PRC [Chinese] government."
When asked by the Associated Press about the matter, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhào Lìjiān urged the U.S. to stop “smearing against China” and “abandon the Cold War mentality and ideological bias.”
Sources: AP News, WHEC, New York Times, MSN, Western Journal, News Nation Now, Fox News, Reuters, SupChina
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