In an explosive press conference on Monday, the Biden administration revealed charges against thirteen Chinese spies and accused Beijing of ‘interfering with the rights and liberties’ of Americans.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, along with Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and officials from the Eastern District of New York and New Jersey attorney offices, led a press conference to announce the law enforcement proceedings.
According to Wray, ten of the thirteen individuals indicted are Chinese intelligence personnel or government officials.
Garland stated that the first case involves freshly unsealed charges against two alleged Chinese spies who attempted to recruit a federal government employee “to obtain private information about United States criminal prosecution” of a China-based corporation.
In a separate incident, agents accused a China-based academic institute of attempting to recruit individuals to support Beijing’s ‘intelligence purpose’ and suppress US-based protests that would have been ’embarrassing’ for the Chinese Communist Party.
In the third case, seven spies were accused of participating in a campaign to track down and coerce Chinese dissidents living abroad into returning to the Communist state. Garland stated that two of them were arrested only last week.
Later in the news conference, Wray stated, “They are charged in three separate cases that, at first view, appear to involve unrelated matters.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland convened a press conference at the eleventh hour on Monday to announce charges against thirteen alleged Chinese agents.
‘However, and I’ve been saying this for years, each of these cases exposes the Chinese government’s gross violation of international laws as they attempt to promote their authoritarian ideology around the world, even within our borders.’
“As these instances illustrate, the Chinese government intended to interfere with the rights and freedoms of individuals in the United States and to undermine our legal system, which guarantees those rights,” stated Garland. They were unsuccessful.
Chinese agents are said to have attempted to “obstruct” a US government lawsuit.
In the initial instance, officials refused to acknowledge the name of the corporation in question, but various sources indicate that it is Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
In 2019, the US government filed a lawsuit against Huawei for RICO crimes.
The individual recruited by the Chinese agents turned out to be a double agent for the FBI, who, according to Garland, provided them with material that appeared pertinent to what they were seeking.
“In fact, the materials were manufactured by the U.S. government for this investigation and did not indicate actual meetings, discussions, or strategies,” Garland explained.
The Biden representative referred to it as a “outrageous” attempt to destroy the American legal system.
A ‘fake think tank’ was utilized to attract former US national security officers and suppress Americans’ First Amendment rights.
In the second instance, Garland disclosed that his Justice Department uncovered a decade-long effort to influence Americans to support China’s technological and authoritarian aspirations by “under the cover of a claimed Chinese academic institute.”
According to him, three of the four individuals charged in this case are Chinese intelligence officers.
These directions included efforts to acquire American technology and equipment for shipment to China, according to Garland.
They also included measures to halt First Amendment-protected activities and protests in the United States, which would have embarrassed the Chinese government.
Monaco stated that the group attempted to recruit former American national security officials through “various tactics,” including free visits to China, using a “fake think tank.”
She accused China of a “unrelenting drive to get access to our technologies, recruit agents, and impede the free interchange of ideas.”