Among the exiled Chinese dissidents, Tang Yuanjun was very well known. He participated in the 1989 protests in the Plaza de Tiananmen and was imprisoned. He later defected to Taiwan, swimming to one of its outlying islands from a fishing boat. The United States granted him asylum and settled in New York, becoming leader of Chinese pro-democracy groups.
But in August 2024 was arrested by the FBI. He admits to having used his position to collect information for the Chinese government y denounce fellow activists. He did it so that the Government would allow him return to China to see his sick parents.
He hacking of computer networks Americans by China and its efforts to steal military and commercial secrets from the West have grabbed headlines in recent years. But Beijing has also been carrying out a more subtle campaign – involving bribes, blackmail y secret agreements- in which he uses people like Tang and other members of the Chinese diaspora to carry out surveillance operations, information collection e influence all over the world.
Britain recently had a taste of all this when authorities accused Yang Tengboa Chinese businessman, to maintain a link with the prince andrewbrother of the king, as part of an influence operation.
The United States, however, is China’s most important target. These types of activities fall within the scope of application of the Foreign Agents Registration Law (FARA), a US law that requires those who participate in political projects on behalf of a foreign actor to register and disclose what they do.
In recent years, the Department of Justice has stepped up enforcement of this law. The Department conducted 25 FARA inspections in 2023, the most since 1985, and this year there have been several high-profile cases involving China.
By making these investigations public, the US government is sending a warning to potential agents, experts say.
An important case is that of Linda Sunformer aide to the Governor of New York, arrested in September for working as “undisclosed agent” of China and its Communist Party (CPC). Sun would have blocked meetings between Taiwanese officials and state leaders, removed references to Taiwan from state communications y hampered efforts to publicize China’s persecution of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. In exchange, he would have received million dollars in bribes and gifts, including several deliveries of Nanjing-style salted ducks to his parents’ home.
Although the accusations against Sun are clear, China’s influence operations often take place in a gray area, as is the case with diaspora groups called tongxianghuior hometown associations, which bring together immigrants from certain parts of China and are ubiquitous in American cities but They are increasingly under the scrutiny of the Department of Justice.
Association leaders often mobilize voters before elections in the United States and build relationships with local officials. Some also travel to China and meet with officials from the U.S. Department of Labor. United Frontthe branch of the Communist Party charged with boosting China’s influence abroad. Association leaders organize political activities in the United Stateslike rallies in support of Xi Jinping o protests against visits by Taiwanese officials.
These activities are legal, as long as the organizers act independently, but the line between voluntary action and working as an agent is blurred..
Many overseas Chinese are true supporters of the Communist Party or at least willing to promote its interests because that will help their businesses in China or keep their families safe in the country. Only when they receive covert financing, instructions o supervision of Chinese officials They cross the line that makes them foreign agents.
In 2022, for example, the FBI detained the director of an association in the hometown of Shandong, not because of his frequent trips to China and his friendship with Chinese officials, but because they suspected that collaborated with Chinese police to forcibly repatriate another immigrant. Similarly, in 2023, two Chinese men were charged with allegedly collaborating with Chinese police to run a “clandestine police station” within an association from Fujian’s hometown in New York. One of them pleaded guilty on December 18.
US authorities have struggled to combat these efforts without isolating the Chinese diaspora. An anti-espionage program launched in 2018, called China Initiativewas intended to prevent the country from using “non-traditional collectors”as academics and scientists, to steal trade and technological secrets from the United States.
Nearly 90% of those charged under the initiative were of Chinese origin, according to a database compiled by the MIT Technology Review. Many of the cases concerned “research integrity” issues, with academics accused of not fully disclosing their Chinese affiliations (whether this was deliberate is hotly disputed). Only a quarter of the cases brought under the initiative resulted in a conviction.
US counterintelligence efforts aim to make Chinese diaspora feel safesays a former official who worked on the Initiative. “You are transmitting to them: we have your back”says and warns: “What you don’t want is to go into a situation where being Chinese is equivalent to being a spy.”“.
But the Initiative left many academics feeling that the government viewed them with suspicion simply because of their Chinese heritage, says Gang Chen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 2021, Gang was accused of failing to disclose his connections to Chinese educational programs when submitting a federal grant application. The accusation was widely criticized although, in reality, it was not mandatory to reveal such links. A year later the charges were dropped.
According to a survey conducted in 2022, More than 60% of Chinese-American academics have thought about leaving the United States and more of 70% said feel insecure over there. “This is not just shooting ourselves in the foot. “It’s shooting ourselves in the brain,” says Chen, who has stopped applying for government grants or working in potentially sensitive areas.
Other members of the Chinese diaspora applaud efforts to curb the influence of the Communist Party. Zhou Fengsuo of Human Rights in China, an advocacy group in New York, praises the arrests of people like Sun but warns that the firm hand and the inconsistency of the American approach have generated distrust towards the Government in the diaspora.
He also complains that exiled Chinese dissidents receive little protection from the authoritieswhich makes them easier targets for Chinese coercion.
In 2022, the Justice Department ended the China Initiativeadmitting that it had led to a “harmful perception” of racial profiling. In September, however, the House of Representatives approved, with the support of all Republicans, a bill to revive it with a new name, CCP Initiative.
These efforts seem likely to intensify under the president-elect. Donald Trumpwhich has given important posts to China hawks. The risk is that, in its efforts to counter the Communist Party, the United States will put more members of the diaspora in its hands..
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