Legal proceedings continue for ex-UCD researcher charged with visa fraud
A 37-year-old former University of California, Davis, researcher, charged with visa fraud and lying to the FBI about being a member of the Chinese military, returns for more legal proceedings Tuesday in a federal court in Sacramento.
Tang Juan, of Xi’an, China, who was indicted on the charges by a federal grand jury in August, will face District Judge John A. Mendez for a status conference.
She pleaded not guilty at arraignment and was later released on a $750,000 bond promised by an attorney, Steven X. Cui. The bond is not cash, but it means that if Tang skips her court dates, he will have to sell his home or muster the $750,000. Cui and his wife have agreed to let Tang live with them and make sure she attends all court hearings, where she will be represented by three lawyers: Malcom S. Segal, Patrick Wong, and Thomas A. Johnson, court records indicate.
But U. S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott on Sept. 10 filed a motion to revoke U.S. Magistrate Judge Kendall J. Newman’s pretrial release of Tang.
In the motion, Scott and Assistant U. S. Attorney Heiko P. Coppola, who is prosecuting the case, referred to Tang’s July 23 arrest by federal agents, who had observed her leaving the Chinese consulate in San Francisco. She also noted the Department of Homeland Security’s lodging of an immigration detainer and the U.S. State Department’s revocation of her J-1 visa, a non-immigrant visa for people approved to participate in work-studybased programs in the United States.
Tang is alleged to have possessed a non-immigrant J-1 visa that she got by making false statements during the application process about her military service, concealing her ties to China’s military so she could work in the United States.
When later interviewed by FBI agents, Tang ( pronounced “tongue”) also made false statements about her military service. Specifically, U.S. authorities allege that Tang is a current member of the Chinese Air Force and lied about serving in the Asian nation’s armed forces.
If convicted of visa fraud, she could face as much as 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. If also convicted of making false statements, she could face a maximum of five years in prison and another $250,000 fine. Her pending court date c ome s a fter national headlines in July about Tang a nd t hree other Chinese nationals who were charged with visa fraud in connection with a scheme to lie about their status as members of the Chinese military.
The three others — Xin Wang, Chen Song and Kaikai Zhao, like Tang, all members of China’s military, federal authorities believe — were either previously arrested or indicted, Department of Justice officials have said.
“These members of China’s People’s Liberation Army applied for research visas while hiding their true affiliation with the PLA (People’s Liberation Army),” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said in a prepared statement released at the time of Tang’s arrest. “This is another part of the Chinese Communist Party’s plan to take advantage of our open society and exploit academic institutions. We will continue to conduct this investigation together with the FBI.”
If convicted at trial for visa fraud, each of the others, like Tang, face a maximum term of 10 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
Tang was the last of the four to be arrested after the Justice Department accused the Chinese consulate in San Francisco of harboring a known fugitive.
Wang, who stated on his visa application that he would conduct research at the University of California, San Francisco, was arrested on June 7 and appeared in federal court the next day. A grand jury in the Northern District of California indicted him on June 22. Court documents indicated Wang was instructed by his military supervisor to observe the layout of the UCSF lab and bring back information on how to replicate it in China. Wang, whose work was funded by federal grants, told his UCSF professor that he had duplicated some of his university work at a Chinese lab.
Song, 38, who entered the United States on Dec. 23, 2018, indicated on her visa application that she came to the U. S. to conduct brainrelated research at Stanford University. But DOJ officials said Song lied about her service in the People’s Liberation Army, that her true employer was the Chinese Air Force. Song was arrested July 18.
According to a complaint filed in the Southern District of Indiana on July 17, Zhao, a graduate student studying machine learning and artificial intelligence at Indiana University, applied for a nonimmigrant visa in June 2018. In response to the question “Have you ever served in the military?” Zhao wrote, “No.”
DOJ officials believe Zhao served in the National University of Defense Technology, the People’s Liberation Army’s premier school for scientific research and education and attended a Chinese military academy that can be compared to the U.S. Air Force Academy. The FBI found an online photo of Zhao wearing a Chinese Air Force uniform. Zhao also was arrested July 18.
As for Tang, FBI agents also found photos of her dressed in military uniform and reviewed articles in China identifying her military affiliation.
UC Davis officials, according to a July Associated Press report, indicated Tang left her job as a visiting researcher in the Department of Radiation Oncology in June. Her work was funded by a study-based exchange program affiliated with China’s Ministry of Education, the university noted in a written statement.
As previously reported in The Reporter, federal investigators said they believe Tang sought refuge at the consulate after they interviewed her on June 20 at her Davis apartment, at 920 Cranbrook Court, where, with a warrant, they later seized electronic media and her Chinese passport.
According to a June 26 criminal complaint, an online search revealed Tang, in an article published in 2019, wearing a Chinese military uniform and listed her employer as the Chinese Air Force Military Medical University. Although Tang denied having been a member of the military, an additional photograph of Tang in a different PLA military uniform was found on electronic media seized after the warrant was served.
The FBI has been interviewing visa holders in more than 25 American cities suspected of hiding their ties to the Chinese military.
The allegations against Tang and the others come as U.S.- China relations continue to deteriorate, particularly over allegations of Chinese theft of U.S. intellectual property.
China’s consulate in Houston was shut down in July on the order of U.S. authorities after the Trump administration accused Chinese agents of trying to steal medical and other research in Texas and commercial and military secrets elsewhere.
The consulate-closure order was only the latest U.S. action to rile Chinese leaders. In recent weeks, Beijing has endured a heightened campaign against its 5G wireless technology and sanctions against officials overseeing Hong Kong and the largely Muslim region of Xinjiang in far western China.