Eight Individuals Charged With Conspiring to Act as Illegal Agents of the People’s Republic of China

[Bigun]

Eight Individuals Charged With Conspiring to Act as Illegal Agents of the People’s Republic of China

PRC Officials Directed Multi-Year Campaign of Harassment and Stalking; Directed at U.S. Residents to Force Their Return to PRC

A complaint and arrest warrants were unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging eight defendants with conspiring to act in the United States as illegal agents of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).  Six defendants also face related charges of conspiring to commit interstate and international stalking.  The defendants, allegedly acting at the direction and under the control of PRC government officials, conducted surveillance of and engaged in a campaign to harass, stalk, and coerce certain residents of the United States to return to the PRC as part of a global, concerted, and extralegal repatriation effort known as “Operation Fox Hunt.” ...

Excerpted from https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/eight-individuals-charged-conspiring-act-illegal-agents-people-s-republic-china

[PeteS in CA]

Feds charge 8 in alleged secret Chinese repatriation plot hunting fugitives in U.S.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/28/feds-charge-8-secret-chinese-repatriation-squad/6052942002/

Federal authorities unveiled criminal charges Wednesday against eight people accused of serving as part of a covert Chinese repatriation squad that sought to forcibly return fugitives to the Beijing government.

The suspects, whose mission was allegedly sanctioned by the People's Republic of China, worked for more than three years as part of a campaign known as "Operation Fox Hunt" to coerce Chinese nationals living in the United States to return to China, where they were wanted for various government offenses, said John Demers, chief of the Justice Department's National Security Division.

In many instances, Demers said, the "hunted are opponents of Communist Party Chairman Xi (Jinping), political rivals, dissidents and critics." Demers said the suspects operated far outside the normal diplomatic channels.

Five of the suspects, including a New Jersey private investigator who allegedly assisted with surveillance, were arrested earlier Wednesday and charged as illegal agents of the PRC. The three others are believed to be living in China.

But Trump is still xenophobic when he speaks of Covid and China!