New York, Mar 30 (AP): A Chinese man failed to register as an agent of the People's Republic of China when he conspired with at least one U.S. law enforcement officer and others to force individuals to return to China to face charges, authorities said Wednesday as court documents were unsealed.
The charge against Sun Hoi Ying was contained in a Manhattan federal court criminal complaint created as part of an FBI probe of individuals working at the direction of China government officials to pressure individuals in the U.S. and elsewhere to return to China to face charges or reach financial settlements with the government there.
According to a release by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, Sun is at large in China after operating in the United States from February 2017 to February 2022 as he hired private investigators in the U.S. to gather personal information on targets of the Chinese government.
In one instance, Sun, 53, met with an individual in New York City along with a local U.S. law enforcement officer to threaten and pressure the individual who was targeted by the Chinese government with claims that certain adverse and retaliatory actions would be taken if the person didn't comply with the Chinese government demands.
“We allege Mr. Sun, as part of that campaign, attempted to threaten and coerce a victim into bending to the PRC's will, even using a co-conspirator who is a member of local U.S. law enforcement to reinforce that the victim had no choice but to comply with the PRC Government's demands,” Williams said.
Williams said the man's actions were part of what the PRC government labelled “Operation Fox Hunt” when it announced in July 2014 that it was going to pursue and repatriate Chinese nationals.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said Sun “enlisted others, including a sworn law enforcement officer, to spy on and blackmail his victims. Such conduct is both criminal and reprehensible.” The latest case is part of a trend of what the FBI and Justice Department have described as “transnational repression” — episodes in which agents of a foreign government have sought to silence dissidents living in the United States.
The pattern is alarming enough to federal law enforcement officials that they have launched a section on the FBI website dedicated to highlighting the problem and the cases that have been brought.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department charged five people with acting on behalf of the Chinese government in a campaign to stalk, intimidate and silence activists or dissidents of the government, including a congressional candidate in New York.
In a 2020 case introducing the Fox Hunt investigation, prosecutors charged eight people in a Chinese government pressure campaign aimed at coercing a New Jersey man who was wanted by Beijing into returning to China to face charges.
The Chinese government is not alone in such efforts. Other transnational repression cases, for instance, have involved the Iranian government. (AP) VM VM
(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)