The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced on Wednesday (October 28) the indictment of eight individuals for acting as agents of the People’s Republic of China and participating in Operation Fox Hunt in the United States, five of whom were arrested. The U.S. government accuses Beijing of illegally enforcing the law and monitoring and harassing U.S. citizens and permanent residents on U.S. soil. This is the first time the U.S. has brought charges against individuals involved in Operation Fox Hunt.
The indictment, unsealed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, charges eight defendants with conspiring to act as unlawful agents of the People’s Republic of China in the United States, with six of the defendants also facing charges of conspiracy to commit interstate and international stalking.
Five of the eight were arrested Wednesday morning, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said in announcing the criminal charges against them. The other three fugitive defendants are believed to be in China, he said.
Defendants Zhu Yong, Hongru Jin and Michael McMahon were arrested Wednesday morning and were to appear in federal district court Wednesday afternoon.
Two other suspects, Rong Jing and Zheng Congying, were arrested in Los Angeles, California, and will appear in federal district court late Wednesday afternoon. In addition, three other suspects, Zhu Feng, Hu Ji, and Li Minjun, remain at large.
The defendants allegedly participated in a global extrajudicial repatriation operation known as “Operation Fox Hunt” under the direction and control of Chinese government officials, spying on a number of U.S. residents and harassing, stalking, and coercing them to return to China, the Justice Department said in a news release.
With today’s allegations, we have turned the fox hunt in the People’s Republic of China on its head, with the hunter becoming the prey and the pursuer becoming the pursued,” Demers said Wednesday at a web-based press conference at the Justice Department’s Washington headquarters. The five defendants arrested by the FBI this morning on these charges of illegally working for the Chinese government now face the prospect of jail time in the United States. To those charged in China and to others who engage in such conduct, our message is clear: Do not enter the country. Your behavior is not welcome here.”
Demers said China has portrayed the fox hunt as an international anti-corruption campaign, but that’s not the whole story, and in many cases the targets of the hunt are often political opponents, dissidents and critics of Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. Whether the targets are real criminals or dissidents, he said, the operation is a clear violation of the rule of law and international norms.
The DOJ indictment states that international law enforcement involving the United States requires coordination between foreign governments and the U.S. government, and that foreign governments must notify the U.S. government when they send officials and their agents to the U.S. to conduct investigations, and that China’s Fox Hunt failed to coordinate with the U.S. government.
Instead of cooperating with U.S. authorities to assist with recognized criminal cases, as responsible countries do, China has resorted to extrajudicial means and unauthorized, often covert, law enforcement activities,” Demers said. Without coordinating with our government, Chinese repatriation teams enter the United States to monitor and locate alleged fugitives, and use intimidation and other means to force them to return to China, where they face imprisonment or worse after an unlawful trial. There are many established ways for countries that abide by the rule of law to conduct international law enforcement activities. This is certainly not one of them.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray said at the press conference that the charges were the result of a multi-year investigation by U.S. judicial authorities and were the first criminal charges of their kind.
Simply put, it’s outrageous that China thinks it can come on our soil, engage in illegal actions, and bend people in the United States to their will,” he said. In this case, after the victim reported the Chinese harassment to the FBI, we immediately began a multi-year investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice and uphold the rule of law. The FBI is proud to conclude this investigation with the filing of criminal charges, the first of their kind, which will help teach China that monitoring, stalking, harassing, and extorting our citizens and legal residents carries significant risks. This message is especially important because of the sad fact that this is by no means an isolated incident and that China’s tactics have been appalling.”
The indictment states that the defendants engaged in a transnational campaign to threaten, harass, surveil and intimidate a New Jersey resident and his family in order to compel the “Red Notice” resident to return to China, including posting on the victim’s room door, “If you are willing to go back to the mainland for ten years, your wife and children will be sent to prison. Nothing. It’s over!” The note.
The indictment refers to the subject of the Chinese authorities’ “fox hunt” as “John Doe-1,” meaning “Male Jia,” a citizen of the People’s Republic of China who came to the United States in or about September 2010 and currently resides in New Jersey with his wife, Jane Doe-1.
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