Chinese Agents Charged With Harassing U.S. Dissidents: Feds

QUEENS, NY — Several Chinese government agents, one of whom lives in Queens, stand accused of harassing Chinese dissidents in the United States, including a New York City-based congressional candidate, federal prosecutors announced.

Indictments unsealed Wednesday detail various criminal harassment and bribery charges against five people who the justice department said were allegedly working for China's secret police force in order to spy on, stalk, and harass dissidents in the United states.

In one case, federal prosecutors accused Qiming Lin, 59, of plotting against a New York City-based congressional candidate, who other outlets said was probably as Xiong Yan.

Lin allegedly hired a US-based private investigator to unearth — or fabricate — information for a smear campaign against the candidate, even going as far as proposing that the investigator commit an act of violence against the candidate, like hitting him with a car, according to federal prosecutors.

Lin hasn't been tracked down by officials, the Department of Justice said Wednesday.

In another case, a Queens resident named Shujun Wang, 73, allegedly served as the head of pro-democracy group in Queens in order to report information about activists, dissidents, and human rights leaders to the Chinese government, federal prosecutors said.

At least one person who Wang reported to his secret police force handlers was arrested in Hong Kong and jailed on political charges in 2020, according to the Department of Justice.

Wang was arrested Wednesday morning, according to federal prosecutors.

In the third case, several Chinese government agents spied on pro-democracy activists, including installing surveillance cameras and GPS devices at the workplace and car of a dissident artist, the Department of Justice said.

In one scheme one of the agents paid a Queens-based private investigator to bribe an IRS agent (who was actually working with law enforcement) in order to obtain federal tax returns of a dissident, federal prosecutors said. The agents allegedly planned to disclose the statements and discredit the activist, according to the Department of Justice.

Two of the agents, Fan Liu, 62, and Matthew Ziburis, 49, were based in Long Island, and operated under the direction of another agent, Qiang Sun, 40, based in China, prosecutors said.

The Long Island-based men were arrested Tuesday, but Sun hasn't been tracked down by officials, according to the Department of Justice.

"The complaints unsealed today reveal the outrageous and dangerous lengths to which the People’s Republic of China government’s secret police and these defendants have gone to attack the rule of law and freedom in New York City and elsewhere in the United States," said United States Attorney Peace Wednesday.

"As alleged, all three cases involve campaigns to silence, harass, discredit and spy on U.S. residents for simply exercising their freedom of speech. The United States will not tolerate blatantly illegal actions that target U.S. residents, on U.S. soil, and undermine our treasured American values and rights," he added.