Five nabbed in threat to ex-China big

Five men were arrested Wednesday for harassing a former Chinese official on behalf of the government of China, Brooklyn federal prosecutors announced.

From 2016 to 2019, the men stalked and sent threatening messages to the official, a resident of New Jersey identified only as John Doe, prosecutors said.

John Doe had allegedly accepted bribes while working in China, and the goal of the harassment campaign was to get him to return there to face prison time.

“If you are willing to go back to the mainland and spend 10 years in prison, your wife and children will be all right. That’s the end of this matter!” the illegal agents allegedly wrote in a handwritten note left on the door of John Doe’s home in 2018.

The alleged Chinese agents are Hongru Jin, 30; Zhu Yong, 64; Michael McMahon, 53; Rong Jing, 38; and Zheng Congying, 24 (photo).

McMahon was a New Jersey private investigator hired by the group to aid their stalking campaign, prosecutors said.

Beyond threatening the former official, the agents also targeted his family members, including his wife and daughter, according to prosecutors.

In 2016, the agents, along with members of the Chinese government, coerced the man’s elder father to travel to the U.S. to tell his son to come back or else his family might be harmed, according to court papers.

The targeting of the former official is part of a larger Chinese government operation known as Fox Hunt, a worldwide effort to “forcibly repatriate [People’s Republic of China] citizens living in the United States and other countries who are wanted in the PRC for allegedly committing various crimes,” the prosecutors said.

“The operation is a clear violation of the rule of law and international norms,” said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security.

The case will be prosecuted in Brooklyn.