A Chinese American was convicted by a New York jury Tuesday on charges stemming from his nearly two decades spying on dissidents for China.
Aug. 7, 2024
Aug. 7 (UPI) -- A federal jury has convicted a Chinese American academic known publicly for his pro-democracy efforts on charges of spying on Chinese dissidents for Beijing.
Following a one-week trial, the New York jury handed down its verdict against Shujun Wang on Tuesday, finding him guilty on four counts of acting and conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government.
The 75-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen is a founder of the Flushing, N.Y., pro-democracy Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang Memorial Foundation, whose membership includes Chinese dissidents and critics of the People's Republic of China.
But prosecutors accused Wang of using his position to collect and transfer information on Chinese dissidents to his native country for nearly two decades.
"The indictment could have been the plot of a John LeCarre or Graham Greene spy novel, but the evidence is shockingly real that the defendant led a double life, pretending for years to be an activist for democracy while he was secretly passing information to the Chinese government," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York said in a statement.
"The defendant was a perfect stooge for the PRC, a well-known academic and founder of a pro-democracy organization who was willing to betray those who respected and trusted him."
Court documents show that since at least 2006 Wang operated under the direction of four Chinese officials of Beijing's foreign intelligence Ministry of State Security. At their direction, he was tasked with gathering information on those seen as "subversive" to the People's Republic of China.
Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters, Taiwanese independence advocates and Uyghur and Tibet activists where among those he was tasked with spying on, according to prosecutors, who said Wang communicated with the Chinese intelligence officials over encrypted messing smart phone applications and met with them in person during his trips to his native country.
According to prosecutors, the information Wang collected from private conversations with prominent dissidents, pro-democracy advocates and human rights organization was kept as so-called email diaries that his accomplices were able to access.
In total, some 163 diary entries had been recovered by law enforcement from his residence.
Amid the law enforcement investigation, additional charges were brought against Wang for lying. According to prosecutors, he denied being in contact with the ministry officials over the course of three separate interviews held between 2017 and 2021.
Wang was arrested March 16, 2022, and was charged along with the four Chinese intelligence officials.
When sentenced Jan. 9, Wang faces up to 25 years' imprisonment.
His co-defendants -- Feng He, Jie Ji, Ming Li and Keqing Lu -- remain at large.
China has previously rejected the accusations that it was behind the spying of Chinese dissidents. After Wang was arrested, Beijing lambasted the United States for its "unwarranted denigration and smearing against China."
"The U.S. side should abandon the Cold War mentality and ideological bias, stop groundless accusation and smearing against china and do more to promote China-U.S. relations," said Zhao Lijian, Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman.
13. The Use Of Spies
1. Sun Tzu said: Raising a host of a hundred thousand men and marching them great distances entails heavy loss on the people and a drain on the resources of the State.
The daily expenditure will amount to a thousand ounces of silver. There will be commotion at home and abroad, and men will drop down exhausted on the highways.
As many as seven hundred thousand families will be impeded in their labor.
2. Hostile armies may face each other for years, striving for the victory which is decided in a single day.
This being so, to remain in ignorance of the enemy's condition simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in honors and emoluments, is the height of inhumanity.
3. One who acts thus is no leader of men, no present help to his sovereign, no master of victory.
4. Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.
5. Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits; it cannot be obtained inductively from experience, nor by any deductive calculation.
6. Knowledge of the enemy's dispositions can only be obtained from other men.
7. Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes: (1) Local spies; (2) inward spies; (3) converted spies; (4) doomed spies; (5) surviving spies.
8. When these five kinds of spy are all at work, none can discover the secret system. This is called "divine manipulation of the threads." It is the sovereign's most precious faculty.
9. Having local spies means employing the services of the inhabitants of a district.
10. Having inward spies, making use of officials of the enemy.
11. Having converted spies, getting hold of the enemy's spies and using them for our own purposes.
12. Having doomed spies, doing certain things openly for purposes of deception, and allowing our spies to know of them and report them to the enemy.
13. Surviving spies, finally, are those who bring back news from the enemy's camp.
14. Hence it is that which none in the whole army are more intimate relations to be maintained than with spies.
None should be more liberally rewarded. In no other business should greater secrecy be preserved.
15. Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity.
16. They cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness.
17. Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports.
18. Be subtle! be subtle! and use your spies for every kind of business.
19. If a secret piece of news is divulged by a spy before the time is ripe, he must be put to death together with the man to whom the secret was told.
20. Whether the object be to crush an army, to storm a city, or to assassinate an individual, it is always necessary to begin by finding out the names of the attendants, the aides-de-camp, and door-keepers and sentries of the general in command. Our spies must be commissioned to ascertain these.
21. The enemy's spies who have come to spy on us must be sought out, tempted with bribes, led away and comfortably housed. Thus they will become converted spies and available for our service.
22. It is through the information brought by the converted spy that we are able to acquire and employ local and inward spies.
23. It is owing to his information, again, that we can cause the doomed spy to carry false tidings to the enemy.
24. Lastly, it is by his information that the surviving spy can be used on appointed occasions.
25. The end and aim of spying in all its five varieties is knowledge of the enemy; and this knowledge can only be derived, in the first instance, from the converted spy.
Hence it is essential that the converted spy be treated with the utmost liberality.
26. Of old, the rise of the Yin dynasty was due to I Chih who had served under the Hsia. Likewise, the rise of the Chou dynasty was due to Lu Ya who had served under the Yin.
27. Hence it is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for purposes of spying and thereby they achieve great results. Spies are a most important element in water, because on them depends an army's ability to move.
No comments:
Post a Comment