Chinese secret police and their agents are stalking, harassing, intimidating, and conspiring to commit violence against pro-democracy activists and Chinese dissidents on U.S. soil, according to three new criminal cases unsealed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on March 16.
The efforts include a plot to interfere in a Congressional election, covert attempts to arrest enemies of the Chinese Communist Party, and surveillance operations to spy on anti-communist activists.
“These cases expose attempts by the government of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] to suppress dissenting voices within the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen during a press conference, referring to the Chinese regime’s official name.
“They demonstrate how the PRC seeks to stalk, intimidate, and silence those who oppose them.”
Five individuals were charged in relation to schemes to harass and spy on ethnic Chinese in the United States critical of the communist regime.
An Alleged Plot Against a Congressional Candidate
In one of the cases, federal prosecutors said that Lin Qiming, an alleged Chinese agent, contracted a private investigator (PI) in New York to manufacture a political scandal in the hopes of undermining the Congressional campaign of Yan Xiong, who is currently seeking the Democratic nomination to run for Congress representing a district in Long Island.
Yan is a naturalized American citizen and Army veteran who served two tours in Iraq. He has long been a target of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for his participation as a student leader in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and for his later support of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
Lin’s arrest warrant details his efforts to use a private investigator to implicate Yan in prostitution, tax evasion, and possession of child pornography. Failing that, Lin encouraged the PI to physically harm Yan by either beating him or forcing him into a car accident.
“If you don’t find anything after following him for a few weeks, can we manufacture something,” Lin said in one recorded call, according to the court document.
“But in the end, violence would be fine too,” Lin said in a voice message. “Beat him. Beat him until he cannot run for election.”
The warrant said Lin was a retired Chinese intelligence agent who continued to perform work for the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), the regime’s top intelligence agency.
