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A 67-year-old Chinese American pro-democracy advocate living in Queens, New York, has recently been arrested and charged with operating as an illegal agent for Beijing within the U.S., the Department of Justice (DOJ) reported.
In Wednesday’s federal court proceedings in New York, Yuanjun Tang faced one count of acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. Attorney General, one count of conspiracy, and one count of making false statements.
According to the DOJ, Tang operated as an agent in the U.S. from approximately 2018 to 2023 for China’s Ministry of State Service (MSS). He may be in prison for up to 20 years, according to South China Morning Post.
Tang, however, also has an alleged history of pro-democracy activities, including his participation in and arrest during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, as well as his subsequent defection to Taiwan around 2002.
On Wednesday, Tang was also accused of serving as an informant to a Chinese intelligence officer regarding planned events in New York that commemorated the Tiananmen Square massacre in 2021 and in 2022, according to CBS.
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He also claimed to the FBI that he was unable to access an email account used to contact his MSS handler, for which the DOJ charged him for making false statements.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy to the U.S. told Reuters that he was unaware of the specifics of the case but added that China requires citizens to abide by local law and disagrees with “groundlessly slandering and smearing” the country.
As reported on by South China Morning Post, prosecutors claimed that the reason behind Tang’s actions was because of a bid to see his family in mainland China, which he agreed to. After a visit in 2018, Tang was introduced to an unnamed MSS official, and the MSS began to provide Tang’s family with money afterwards.
Juntao Wang, a founder of the China Democracy Party and leader of the Tiananmen protests, described Tang’s arrest as a “real embarrassment” in an interview with Radio Free Asia, which reported that Tang is a former chairman of the New York-based pro-democracy group. Wang alleged that Tang’s family members were sick and needed care.
“It was actually dangerous for him to return to China,” said Wang. “Because he was involved in the democracy movement, his family became very miserable.”
Communities of Chinese dissidents and pro-democracy activists in the U.S. have long been targets of MSS, which uses the families of those dissidents and activists as a form of coercion. A similar case happened in New York two weeks ago.
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