Arrests issued in Huawei inquiry
Suspected intelligence agents charged
WASHINGTON — Two men suspected of being Chinese intelligence officers have been charged with attempting to obstruct the US criminal investigation and prosecution of Chinese tech giant Huawei, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
The cases were announced at a news conference that featured the heads of both the FBI and the Justice Department, a rare joint presence reflecting a concerted American show of force against Chinese intelligence efforts. Washington has long accused Beijing of meddling in US political affairs and stealing secrets and intellectual property.
Eleven other Chinese have been charged with various offenses in cases, including harassment of individuals in the United States, that FBI Director Christopher Wray said show that China’s “economic assaults and their rights violations are part of the same problem.”
“They try to silence anyone who fights back against their theft — companies, politicians, individuals — just as they try to silence anyone who fights back against their other aggressions,” he said.
The two men in the Huawei case, Guochun He and Zheng Wang, are accused of trying to direct a person with the US government whom they believed was a cooperator to provide confidential information about the Justice Department’s investigation, including about witnesses, trial evidence, and potential new charges. One of the defendants paid about $61,000 for the information, the Justice Department said. The department has issued arrest warrants for the pair, but it’s not clear whether they will ever be taken into custody.
Attorney General Merrick Garland also announced charges against four other Chinese nationals, accusing them of using an academic institute for cover to try to procure sensitive technology and equipment as well as interfering with protests that “would have been embarrassing to the Chinese government.” Two additional people were arrested and five others charged with harassing someone living in the United States to return to China as part of what Beijing calls “Operation Fox Hunt.”
Wang and He are accused of reaching out to someone who began working as a double agent for the US government, and that person’s contacts with the defendants were overseen by the FBI. At one point last year, prosecutors say, the unnamed person passed to the defendants a single-page document that appeared to be classified as secret and that contained information about a purported plan to charge and arrest Huawei executives in the United States. But the document was actually prepared by the government for the purposes of the prosecution unsealed Monday, and the information in it was not accurate.