U.S. Prosecutors: Chinese Agents Tried to Intimidate Tiananmen Survivor Out of Running for Congress

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday announced charges against a ring of Chinese agents for monitoring and intimidating Chinese dissidents living in the United States.

One of the cases involved a Chinese agent allegedly hiring an American private investigator (P.I.) to fabricate a scandal that could keep a survivor of the Tiananmen Square massacre from running for Congress.

DOJ said three of the defendants were arrested in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday: Fan “Frank” Liu, Matthew Ziburis, and Shujun Wang. The other two, Qiang “Jason” Sun and Qiming Lin, remain at large. Both are believed to be in China.

Court documents said the five defendants “allegedly perpetrated transnational repression schemes to target U.S. residents whose political views and actions are disfavored by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government, such as advocating for democracy in the PRC.”

“In one of these schemes, the co-conspirators sought to interfere with federal elections by allegedly orchestrating a campaign to undermine the U.S. congressional candidacy of a U.S. military veteran who was a leader of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing,” the Justice Department said.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) said the unnamed congressional candidate “closely matched” the description of Yan Xiong, “a former student leader of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 who later joined the US military as a chaplain and is now running for a US congressional seat in New York.”

The New York Times (NYT) on Wednesday cited a source who confirmed Yan was the target of the Chinese espionage operation managed by Qiming Lin, which allegedly failed because the P.I. Lin hired in September 2021 to dig up dirt on Yan was working for the FBI.

The DOJ described alleged Chinese agent Lin as very comfortable with escalating to violence if the private investigator could not create a scandal to force Yan out of the race:

In hiring the PI, Lin explained that if the Victim was selected during the June 2022 primary election, then he might be “elected to be a legislator. Right now we don’t want him to be elected.” Lin emphasized that, “Whatever price is fine. As long as you can do it.” He also promised that “we will have a lot more-more of this [work] in the future … Including right now [a] New York State legislator.” Lin explained to the PI that Lin was working with other unidentified individuals in the PRC to stop the Victim from being elected to U.S. Congress.

As alleged, Lin first asked the PI to provide information about the Victim, including the Victim’s address and phone number, which the PI later provided. Lin also requested that the PI unearth derogatory information about the Victim or, if no such information could be found, “manufacture something, like what happened to [a famous concert pianist (the Pianist)]?” That request referred to an incident in Beijing in which the Pianist was reportedly detained after allegedly being found in the company of a prostitute. Lin later reiterated that, if the PI could not uncover a scandal, then “can they create some?” Lin also encouraged the PI to “go find a girl… Or see how he goes for prostitution, take some photos, something of that nature.”

In December 2021, Lin proposed that the PI also consider physically attacking the Victim to prevent his candidacy. In a voice message to the PI, Lin stated:

“You can start thinking now, aside from violence, what other plans are there? Huh? But in the end, violence would be fine too. Huh? Beat him [chuckles], beat him until he cannot run for election. Heh, that’s the-the last resort. You-you think about it. Car accident, [he] will be completely wrecked [chuckles], right? Don’t know, eh, whatever ways from all different angles. Or, on the day of the election, he cannot make it there himself, right?”

Prosecutors claimed China-based Qiang Sun, who nominally works for an “international technology company,” ran Liu and Ziburis as his paid operatives in a scheme to “discredit pro-democracy PRC dissidents residing in the United States” by “spying on them and disseminating negative information about them.” 

This included the alleged attempted bribery of an Internal Revenue Service employee to obtain the federal tax returns of a Chinese dissident in the United States. This scheme was allegedly, once again, intercepted by FBI informants.

“The co-conspirators also made plans to destroy the artwork of a dissident artist whose work is critical of the PRC government, and the artist’s sculpture depicting PRC President Xi Jinping as a coronavirus molecule was demolished in the Spring 2021,” DOJ said.

Another tactic the DOJ accused the trio of developing was using the media company Liu presided over to arrange mock interviews with the dissidents, in which they would be tricked into making statements that could be used to discredit them in Chinese Communist propaganda materials.

As for Shujun Wang, he was a “former visiting scholar and author who helped start a pro-democracy organization in Queens,” but was allegedly secretly working as a mole for China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) the whole time.

“At the direction of the MSS, Wang used his position and status within Chinese diaspora community in New York City to collect information about prominent activists, dissidents, and human rights leaders to report that information to the PRC government,” prosecutors charged.

“The victims of Wang’s efforts included individuals and groups located in New York City and elsewhere that the PRC considers subversive, such as Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, advocates for Taiwanese independence, and Uyghur and Tibetan activists, both in the United States and abroad,” they said.

Wang’s treachery reportedly got several Hong Kong democracy activists arrested in 2019 and 2020. He was also charged with lying to U.S. federal law enforcement agents to cover up his activities. He was arrested after admitting “much of his criminal conduct” to undercover law enforcement officers.

“Transnational repression harms people in the United States and around the world and threatens the rule of law itself,” said DOJ National Security Division Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen on Wednesday.

“This activity is antithetical to fundamental American values, and we will not tolerate it when it violates U.S. law. The Department of Justice will defend the rights of Americans and those who come to live, work, and study in the United States. We will not allow any foreign government to impede their freedom of speech, to deny them the protection of our laws or to threaten their safety or the safety of their families,” Olsen said.

“The complaints unsealed today reveal the outrageous and dangerous lengths to which the PRC government’s secret police and these defendants have gone to attack the rule of law and freedom in New York City and elsewhere in the United States,” added U.S. Attorney Breon Peace of the Eastern District of New York.

“The Ministry of State Security is more than an intelligence collection agency. It executes the Chinese government’s efforts to limit free speech, attack dissidents, and preserve the power of the Communist Party,” said FBI Counterintelligence Division Assistant Director Alan E. Kohler Jr.