By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) — A Chinese academic was convicted on Tuesday, Aug 6, of illegally acting as a foreign agent in the United States by collecting information about New York-based activists supporting democracy in China and sharing his findings with Beijing.
A jury found Wang Shujun guilty on four counts including acting as a foreign agent without notifying the U.S. attorney general and lying to U.S. authorities, following a week-long trial in Brooklyn federal court.
Wang, who emigrated to the United States in 1994, was arrested in March 2022. He could face up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 9, 2025.
Federal prosecutors said Wang Shujun, a naturalized U.S. citizen, portrayed himself as a fierce opponent of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to gain the trust of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, advocates of Taiwan independence, and campaigners for Uyghur and Tibetan rights.
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Prosecutors said Wang was actually spying on the activists and sharing his findings with four officials of the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), an intelligence service.
“The indictment could have been the plot of a spy novel, but the evidence is shockingly real,” Breon Peace, the top federal prosecutor in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, said in a statement. “Wang was willing to betray those who respected and trusted him.”
Wang’s attorney, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, argued Wang was not acting as a CCP agent, but rather spoke to the intelligence officials about the pro-democracy movement to win their support and promote social change.
However, Margulis-Ohnuma said he respected the jury’s verdict and would request a sentence that spares Wang Shujun the “agony” of prison. “He’s a 76-year-old man. He certainly didn’t mean to hurt anyone. He’s spent his life fighting the communist regime.”
The U.S. Department of Justice has in recent years cracked down on what it calls “transnational repression” by U.S. adversaries such as China and Iran.
That term refers to the surveillance, intimidation and in some cases attempted repatriation or murder of activists against those governments.
Last year, a former New York City police sergeant was convicted of acting as a Chinese agent by intimidating a U.S.-based fugitive to return to his homeland and face charges.
The CCP has also directed much of its efforts at spreading propaganda to defame opponents of the regime, particularly adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual practice, which has been heavily persecuted in mainland China since 1999.
A report by the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) released Wednesday, Aug. 7, details a recent campaign launched by Beijing this June to weaponize overseas social media in hopes of “eliminating the force of Falun Gong.”
Vision Times staff contributed to this report.
