Researcher ‘is holed up in consulate’

OAKLAND: The FBI believes a Chinese researcher, accused of visa fraud for hiding her links with the Chinese military, has been holed up in the Chinese consulate in San Francisco for a month.

Documents lodged with the US District Court in San Francisco say Juan Tang, who worked at the University of California in the city of Davis, falsely claimed on her visa application that she had not served in the Chinese military.

However, investigators found photos of her in a Chinese military uniform and discovered she had worked as a researcher at China’s Air Force Military Medical University.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation questioned her on June 20 and she later went to the consulate, where the FBI believes she has remained.

She was charged with visa fraud on June 26 but US law enforcement cannot enter a foreign embassy or consulate unless invited, and certain top officials such as ambassadors have diplomatic immunity.

The Chinese consulate in San Francisco and Tang could not be immediately reached for comment. The US State Department did not reply to a request for comment.

The news, first reported by Axios, comes as US-China tensions flare, with the US giving China 72 hours to close its consulate in Houston amid accusations of spying.

Prosecutors have argued against bail for another Chinese researcher, Chen Song, also arrested for visa fraud. Song worked at Stanford University conducting neurological research.

The files also mention two other recently charged Chinese researchers who worked at University of California, San Francisco and Duke University.

The FBI has long warned universities about the risk of intellectual property theft by foreign researchers.