Three men convicted of bullying ex-official to return to Wuhan
First to result from Chinese operation
NEW YORK — Three men were convicted of various charges Tuesday in a trial showcasing US claims that China has engineered pressure campaigns on American soil to bully expatriates into returning to their homes, as part of an effort called “Operation Fox Hunt.”
American private investigator Michael McMahon and two Chinese citizens living in the United States — Zheng Congying and Zhu Yong — were accused of taking part in scare tactics aimed at a former Chinese official. He was living quietly in New Jersey, and Beijing wanted him back.
Zhu was convicted of acting as an illegal foreign agent, stalking, and conspiracy to commit stalking and to act as an illegal foreign agent. Zheng was convicted of stalking and stalking conspiracy but acquitted of the other charges.
McMahon was convicted of all except conspiracy to act as a foreign agent. No sentencing date has been set for the three men, who face potential maximum sentences ranging from 10 years for Zheng to 25 for Zhu.
The Brooklyn federal court trial was the first to result from a spate of US prosecutions scrutinizing China’s “Operation Fox Hunt,” a nearly decade-old initiative that Beijing characterizes as a pursuit of fugitives, including corrupt officials. US authorities view it, at least sometimes, as an exercise in “transnational repression,” or deploying government operatives to harass, threaten, and silence critics living abroad.
“We will remain steadfast in exposing and undermining efforts by the Chinese government to reach across our border and perpetrate transnational repression schemes,” US Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement after the verdict.
China has denied trying to force repatriations through intimidation and says the United States is maligning an effort to fight crime.
Prosecutors say pressure from Beijing was brought to suburban New Jersey, where former Wuhan city official Xu Jin and his family moved in 2010. China has accused him and his wife of taking bribes; they deny it and say they were targeted because he challenged China’s Communist power structure.
According to prosecutors, Zhu, Zheng, and McMahon took part in a yearslong, multipronged effort to goad Xu into going back to China.
The defense acknowledged that Zhu, Zheng, and McMahon took various actions but said the three had no idea that Beijing was allegedly behind it all.
“If I had known for one second that they were a foreign country, a foreign government, hiring me, I would never have worked the case,” McMahon said.
Zhu’s lawyer, Kevin Tung, believed the defendants were unknowingly used.