US charges seven over alleged Beijing plot to forcibly repatriate 'elite' Chinese
Also: Six Individuals Charged with Conspiring to Act as Illegal Agents of the People's Republic of China (U.S. Attorney's Office - Eastern District of New York)
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Source: The Guardian
US charges seven over alleged Beijing plot to forcibly repatriate ‘elite’ Chinese
US attorney in New York criticises ‘outrageous violations of national sovereignty’ and alleges campaign of harassment against US resident
Staff and agencies
Fri 21 Oct 2022 02.51 BST
Last modified on Fri 21 Oct 2022 02.55 BST
The United States has charged seven Chinese nationals it accuses of waging a surveillance and harassment campaign against a US resident and his family as part of a bid by Beijing to forcibly repatriate one of them back to China.
The eight-count indictment, unsealed on Thursday in a US district court in Brooklyn, New York, is the latest case by the justice department targeting China’s global overseas campaign, known as “Operation Fox Hunt”.
“As alleged, the defendants engaged in a unilateral and uncoordinated law enforcement action on US soil on behalf of the government of the People’s Republic of China, in an effort to cause the forced repatriation of a US resident to China,” said Breon Peace, United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “The United States will firmly counter such outrageous violations of national sovereignty and prosecute individuals who act as illegal agents of foreign states.”
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/21/us-charge-seven-over-alleged-beijing-plot-to-forcibly-repatriate-elite-chinese
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Source: U.S. Attorney's Office - Eastern District of New York
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, October 20, 2022
Six Individuals Charged with Conspiring to Act as Illegal Agents of the People's Republic of China
PRC Officials Directed Multi-Year Campaign of Harassment Intended to Coerce U.S. Resident to Return to the PRC
An eight-count indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging a total of seven nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)—Quanzhong An, his daughter Guangyang An, Tian Peng, Chenghua Chen, Chunde Ming, Xuexin Hou, and Weidong Yuan—with participating in a scheme to cause the forced repatriation of a PRC national residing in the United States. The lead defendant, Quanzhong An, allegedly acted at the direction and under the control of various officials with the PRC’s government’s Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection (Provincial Commission)—including Peng, Chen, Ming, and Hou—to conduct surveillance of and engage in a campaign to harass and coerce a U.S. resident to return to the PRC as part of an international extralegal repatriation effort known as “Operation Fox Hunt.”
Quanzhong An and Guangyang An were arrested this morning and are scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr. The remaining defendants remain at large.
Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Matthew G. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s National Security Division; and Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the arrests and charges.
“As alleged, the defendants engaged in a unilateral and uncoordinated law enforcement action on U.S. soil on behalf of the government of the People’s Republic of China, in an effort to cause the forced repatriation of a U.S. resident to China,” stated United States Attorney Peace. “The United States will firmly counter such outrageous violations of national sovereignty and prosecute individuals who act as illegal agents of foreign states.”
Mr. Peace thanked the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations for its work on the case.
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Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/six-individuals-charged-conspiring-act-illegal-agents-peoples-republic-china-0