The U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictment of eight people who were illegally acting as agents for China’s “Operation Fox Hunt” on March 28, with five of them arrested that morning in the United States and the other three believed to be in China. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin publicly announced today (June 30) that those involved in the case have no connection to the Chinese government.
In a Department of Justice announcement, Assistant Secretary for National Security John C. Demers said that since 2014, China has been conducting a global operation known as “Operation Fox Hunt,” which Chinese officials say is an international anti-corruption effort but is often not, and that the arrests were made by Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping. The FBI arrested five defendants on charges of illegally carrying out a directive from the Chinese government in the United States.
Demers said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested five defendants 28 days ago on charges of illegally carrying out orders from the Chinese government in the United States and they now face prison sentences. Three individuals remain at large, and the U.S. believes they may be in China. The eight are accused of conspiring to act in the U.S. as illegal agents of the Chinese government, and six of them also face charges of conspiracy to commit interstate and international stalking. The defendants allegedly acted under the direction and control of Chinese officials to monitor, harass, track, and threaten the return of certain U.S. residents to China.
According to China’s Global Times, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin declared today: “As far as I know, the people recently arrested by the U.S. are not Chinese law enforcement officers, and the charges are purely false and slanderous. According to him, “The United States is the country with the largest concentration of Chinese corruption and economic crime suspects at large. However, in recent years, the U.S. has been negative on China’s request for cooperation in tracking down the fugitives,” and U.S. law enforcement agencies even “brazenly support and provide asylum for Chinese suspects who have fled the country” and obstruct the voluntary return of fugitives to China.
Wang Wenbin stressed that the U.S. “stands completely against justice and the rule of law,” which China believes is contrary to the spirit of the U.N. Convention against Corruption and the U.N. Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, as well as the public commitments made by the U.S. in international forums. Wang said, “We demand that the U.S. stop making groundless accusations and smearing China’s efforts to track down and recover stolen goods, earnestly fulfill its international obligations and commitments, and stop being greedy for suspects’ black money and becoming a haven for suspects and illegal assets.”
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