Chinese and American flags overlapping
a A New York man who took part in China's 1989 pro-democracy movement was indicted on Wednesday for acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government in the United States, the Department of Justice announced.
Tang Yuanjun, 67, swam to the Taiwan-controlled island more than 20 years ago before he was granted political asylum by the United States.
The defendants are charged with acting as agents of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the United States from 2018 to 2023, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
Tang “carried out his duties in accordance with instructions from the Ministry of State Security of China.” [MSS]”It is China's primary civilian intelligence agency,” the State Department said.
Tang is said to have provided officials from China's National Social Security Administration with information about “individuals and entities that China considers potentially adverse to its interests,” including “well-known Chinese democracy activists and dissidents based in the United States.”
He is also accused of lying to the FBI by claiming he lost access to an email account he used to communicate with state security officials.
He was arraigned Wednesday and was scheduled to appear in local court.
Asked about the matter by AFP on Thursday, China's foreign ministry said it was “not familiar with the details you have raised.”
Tang, a native of Jilin Province in northeastern China, was serving a 20-year sentence for taking part in the 1989 pro-democracy protests that led to the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.
He was released after serving eight years of his sentence.
A Taipei-based rights group that helped Tang defect in 2002 said he continued to campaign for democracy in China and was repeatedly detained, interrogated and harassed by authorities before fleeing to Taiwan. — AFP
