A New York City-based Chinese American pro-democracy activist has been charged with spying on fellow New York dissidents on behalf of the Chinese government, according to an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court last week.
According to the indictment, one of Jun Tang’s targets was a parliamentary candidate who was forced to withdraw from the election at the time after claiming to be the victim of a smear campaign.
According to court documents, Tang, 67, was arrested after federal prosecutors determined he worked undercover for China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) from 2018 to 2023 and conspired to serve as a foreign agent for China without properly registering with U.S. authorities.
Tang, a Flushing resident, is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was imprisoned in China following the deadly 1989 pro-democracy protests at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
He defected to Taiwan in 2002 and was subsequently granted political asylum in the United States, where he regularly works with fellow Chinese dissidents.
Since moving to New York, he has protested against the Chinese government, including staging monthly protests in front of the Chinese consulate in Manhattan, but the indictment alleges he was actually collecting information to send to the Chinese Communist government.
“Specifically, Tang regularly provided intelligence he collected about individuals and entities that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) viewed as potentially adverse to China’s interests, particularly U.S.-based Chinese democratic activists and dissidents. [to his handler]According to court documents:
Among his targets was a Chinese democracy activist running for parliament in 2022, according to court documents.
Xiong Yang, a democracy activist and Iraq War veteran, was running for federal congressional representation in Brooklyn in 2022. But Yang withdrew from the race, telling The Washington Post exclusively at the time that he knew he was the victim of espionage by unregistered Chinese agents.
Pastor Yang also said he had been the victim of a smear campaign that included being introduced to prostitutes and prevented him from raising funds in the community.
The Washington Post first reported that Chinese spies working in an office above a noodle shop in Lower Manhattan’s Chinatown were spying on their own citizens in “Operation Foxhunt.”
In addition to the unofficial Chinese police station in the city, there are about 100 secret Chinese police stations around the world, according to a report by Safeguard Defenders, a Madrid-based nonprofit organization.
As part of his espionage activities, Tan traveled to Macau twice and to China once between 2019 and 2023, meeting in person with officials there, according to the indictment.
According to court documents, Tang provided the Chinese government with information about pro-democracy events in the United States in exchange for cash.
According to the complaint, sometime in April 2022, Tang met with an official from China’s National Security Bureau who installed a “bug” on Tang’s phone so that all photos and videos were sent directly to Tang’s contact in China.
He used the “hacked cell phone” to take photos of the opening ceremony of the June 4th Memorial Hall, established to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre, and sent the photos to the National Socialist People’s Party (MSS).
The pop-up museum, located on the fourth floor of an office building in Herald Square, opened last year after Hong Kong’s Original Museum was closed by authorities in 2021.
Tan’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment on Monday, and he is not yet believed to have entered a plea.
