China espionage6/3/2023 The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment, though China and Huawei have both previously denied such allegations. Today’s cases make clear that Chinese agents will not hesitate to break the law and to violate international norms in the process,” Monaco said.Īrrest warrants were issued for the two men, but it is unlikely they will ever be taken into custody. “China seeks to be a major power on the world stage and challenge the United States in multiple arenas. “The cases unsealed today take place against a backdrop of malign activity by the People’s Republic of China that includes espionage, harassment, obstruction of our justice system and unceasing efforts to steal US technology,” the deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, said. US law enforcement officials have long warned about national security threats posed by China, including through human and cyber espionage, as part of increasingly brazen attempts to steal corporate intellectual property, trade secrets and influence US policy. The initial bribe was followed with a second payment of $20,000 in bitcoin from He as a “reward” in September 2022, the indictment said. The following month, the FBI double agent sent them a document made to look like an internal strategy memo that was labelled “Secret” and discussed a plan to charge and arrest two Huawei employees living in China, for which He is alleged to have paid $41,000 in bitcoin bribes. ![]() Starting in September 2021, the indictment said, He and Wang asked the FBI double agent about what he learned from the US attorney’s office in New York, and which Huawei employees had been interviewed by federal prosecutors as a way to gain insight into the case. The FBI double agent provided some documents to the Chinese agents that appeared to present some of the information they sought – though the documents were actually prepared by the justice department and did not reveal actual meetings or trial strategies. The charging papers against He and Wang referred only to an unnamed telecommunications company based in China, but the entity in question is understood to be Huawei, according to a source familiar with the matter.Īccording to the indictment unsealed in Brooklyn, the Chinese agents paid about $61,000 worth of bitcoin in bribes to a US government official whom they believed had been recruited to work for the Chinese government but in fact worked as a double agent for the FBI. The Chinese intelligence officers Guochun He and Zheng Wang attempted to orchestrate a scheme to steal the prosecution strategy memo, witness lists, and other confidential evidence from the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of New York, the indictment said. ![]() “This was an egregious attempt by PRC intelligence officers to shield a PRC-based company from accountability and to undermine the integrity of our judicial system,” Garland said at a news conference unveiling the indictment. But the move to unmask the espionage operation marked an escalation by the justice department after it accused Huawei in February 2020 of conducting racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets. Washington has long accused Beijing of meddling in US politics and attempting to steal intellectual property. ![]() “The justice department will not tolerate attempts by any foreign power to undermine the rule of law upon which our democracy is based,” he said. Garland said that the cases showed that China “sought to interfere with the rights and freedoms of individuals in the United States and to undermine our judicial system that protects those rights. The announcement of charges against the two alleged agents came as the attorney general, Merrick Garland, detailed two other cases in which Chinese intelligence operatives harassed dissidents inside the United States and pressured US academics to work for them.
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