FBI arrests exUC Davis researcher from China

Federal authorities accused a former UC Davis researcher of lying on a visa application and arrested her after she allegedly sought refuge at the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, officials said Friday.

Juan Tang was arrested by the FBI on an arrest warrant and criminal complaint alleging she lied by responding “no” to a question about whether she ever served in the military on an application for a nonimmigrant J1 visa in October 2019, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.

Federal authorities said in court documents that Tang was a uniformed officer of the People’s Liberation Army, which was described as China’s military forces.

In a criminal complaint filed in late June and unsealed this week, authorities said they found a photo of Tang in uniform.

Tang, who FBI officials interviewed June 20, has denied being part of the military. Authorities found another photo of her in a different military uniform on “electronic media” seized

with a search warrant. Tang got the visa in November 2019 and entered the U.S. in late December.

On Thursday, the Department of Justice announced visa fraud charges against Tang and three other researchers for allegedly lying about their work for the Chinese military. The three other individuals — Xin Wang, Chen Song and Kaikai Zhao — were already in custody.

Tang is scheduled to make an initial court appearance July 27 in Sacramento.