(DCWatchdog.com) – While he was pretending to be a pro-democracy activist, a federal jury found a 75-year-old Chinese naturalized American citizen guilty of secretly being a spy for the Chinese government.
See the tweet further down this post.
According to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release, Shujan Wang collected and reported sensitive information about members of a New York-based advocacy group to China’s intelligence agency without informing U.S. authorities.
Since 2006, Wang had been working under the direction of four officials from China’s Ministry of State Security.
Prosecutors said that at the request of China’s main intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, Wang lived a double life for over a decade.
He portrayed himself as a critic of the Chinese government to build rapport with people who actually opposed it, then betrayed their trust by telling Beijing what they said and planned.
As detailed in the press release, he gathered intelligence on people and organizations the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) considered subversive, including Hong Kong democracy protesters and activists supporting Taiwan’s independence.
Moreover, Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen, said, “This defendant infiltrated a New York-based advocacy group by masquerading as a pro-democracy activist all while covertly collecting and reporting sensitive information about its members to the PRC’s intelligence service.”
Wang was convicted of charges including conspiring to act as a foreign agent without notifying the attorney general. The charges carry the potential for up to 25 years in prison.
However, Wang had pleaded not guilty. His lawyers cast him as someone who was forthcoming with U.S. authorities about activities he saw as innocuous, and they disputed that his communications were truly under Chinese officials’ direction or control.
Wang founded the Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang Memorial Foundation in Queens and used his position there to conduct intelligence operations.
According to the DOJ, he documented about 163 “diary” entries containing details of private conversations with Chinese dissidents and pro-democracy figures.
A Chinese naturalized U.S. citizen co-founded a "pro-democracy" group in Queens—but he was revealed as a Chinese spy and DOJ smacked him with a 25-year prison sentence. Law and order win again! #NationalSecurity #Espionage #nyc #spy #USA #DOJ https://t.co/xMvLCVMRM6 pic.twitter.com/QdN0t9ijSu
— Robert Morton (@Robert4787) August 6, 2024
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