(TibetanReview.net, Jul30’24) – The trial has begun in a New York City federal court on Jul 29 of Shujun Wang who had long billed himself as a scholar and democracy activist, having fled China to build a new life in New York. Prosecutors say he was actually a spy for the Chinese Communist Party, targeting people who pushed for democracy in Hong Kong, those who supported independence for Taiwan and Tibet and Uyghur activists, among others.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said Wang, a naturalised US citizen, exploited his leadership role in New York communities supporting democracy in China to collect information on dissidents, and shared it with four officials in China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), an intelligence service, reported Reuters Jul 30.
Wang, who emigrated to the United States in 1994, was arrested in Mar 2022. He pleaded not guilty to four counts including acting as a foreign agent without notifying the US attorney general, and lying to US authorities.
Prosecutors have said MSS officials had directed Wang to target Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, Taiwanese independence campaigners and Uygur and Tibetan activists. They have added that Wang’s scheme ran from 2005 to 2022.
Defence lawyer Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma has maintained, however, that Wang spoke to the Chinese intelligence officials about the pro-democracy movement in an effort to win their support and promote social change, and was not acting as their agent.
“He’s devoted his life to promoting a free and democratic China through peaceful means,” Margulis-Ohnuma has said. “It was for democracy – it was not as an agent of the Chinese government.”
The US Department of Justice has in recent years cracked down on “transnational repression” by US adversaries such as China and Iran. The term refers to the surveillance, intimidation and in some cases attempted repatriation or even murder of activists against those governments.
Wang, in his mid-70’s, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Jury selection began on Jul 29 before US Circuit Judge Denny Chin, who normally hears appeals, in Brooklyn federal court.
Also charged are four Chinese intelligence officers who acted as Wang’s handlers. But they are believed to be in China, the report added.
“The Chinese government will stop at nothing to lie, steal, and cheat its way to wealth and power, to silence those who oppose it, and to project its authoritarian view around the world — and within our own borders,” nytimes.com Jul 30 quoted the FBI director, Christopher A Wray, as saying in Apr 2023 as he announced charges in two new cases at that time.
But earlier, in a surprise move in Jan 2023, federal prosecutors dropped spying charges against Baimadajie Angwang, a young police officer of Tibetan descent, saying that new information had come to light which had a bearing on the case.
He was accused of being an “insider Threat”, having “operated on behalf of a foreign government; lied to gain his clearance, and used his position as an NYPD police officer to aid the Chinese government’s subversive and illegal attempts to recruit intelligence sources.”
No clear explanation was offered for dropping what was all along described as serious charges against the accused whose main focus was on exile Tibetans.