A federal jury has returned a new indictment against Chen Song, a Chinese researcher at Stanford University. She is accused of concealing the fact that she was a member of the Chinese military and has previously been charged with visa fraud, but this superseding indictment adds several counts of obstruction of justice, destroying documents and making misrepresentations.
“We allege that while working for Stanford University as a researcher, Sam Song was also secretly a member of the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese military.” A statement released Friday (Feb. 19) by the Justice Department quoted David L. Anderson, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, as saying. “When Song feared discovery, she destroyed documents in a failed attempt to conceal her true identity. This prosecution will help protect elite institutions like Stanford from illegal foreign influence.”
The new indictment alleges that Song Chen, a 39-year-old Chinese national, entered the United States in December 2018 on a J-1 nonimmigrant visa to participate in Stanford’s scientific research as a scholar in an exchange visit program.
Prosecutors said Song Chen said in her visa application that she was a research neurologist and came to the U.S. to conduct research related to brain disorders. In her visa application, she said she had served in the Chinese military from Sept. 1, 2001, to June 30, 2011, and that she was a “student” at the West Diaoyutai Hospital in Beijing. But the prosecution alleges that she was a member of the Chinese military at the Time of her entry and throughout her stay in the United States, and that West Diaoyutai Hospital was used to conceal her real employer: the People’s Liberation Army Air Force General Hospital in Beijing.
Prosecutors said Song Chen lied to FBI agents about her ties to the PLA and began removing content related to her military background from the Internet after learning that the FBI was aware of her.
“Members of the People’s Liberation Army cannot apply for visas and come to the United States to study and lie and expect the FBI and our partners not to catch them,” said FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Alan E. Kohler Jr. “Time and time again, the Chinese government has put stealing American research and using our universities above compliance with international norms.”
Sam Song was criminally charged with visa fraud on July 17, 2020, and was indicted by a grand jury on Jan. 7 of this year on that charge. The latest indictment adds to the charges.
The Justice Department said Sam Song’s next court date is a pretrial conference on April 7 of this year, and the trial is scheduled to begin on April 12. The court is the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco.
A statement from the Justice Department Friday mentioned that the indictment only states the charges and, like all defendants, Sam Song is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Recent Comments