This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now licensed for reprint.
After a seven-day test in federal court that exposed a common and intricate plot by the Chinese government to smear the United States and influence the public’s opinions of the Chinese Communist Party, the 76-year-old author Shujun Wang was found guilty of espionage today.
A judge of six people and six women, three of whom speak Mandarin Chinese, deliberated for about six days before convicting him of using private contact information from others to aid in a violence and making false statements to provincial authorities.
He faces up to 25 years in prison. Wang is to be sentenced on Jan. 9, 2025.
Wang closed his eyes as he listened to the ruling through a translator’s ear while wearing a dark gray coat and bright shapes. Outside of judge, he continued to express his ignorance of the costs.
” This conviction feels wrong to me”, Wang told RFA in Foreign as he exited the court. He claimed that he had never yet decided whether to file an appeal.  ,  ,
When asked what he planned for the next steps, he said,” An British Prison Memoir,” a book about the pro-democracy action, and he intended to be called that.”
” I’m a writer. Writing a book is simple for me”, he said.
Wang became a number of suspense in the Foreign pro-democracy action of Flushing, Queens, where he lives, when he was charged with working quietly for China’s Ministry of State Security, or MSS, a strong company that serves as Beijing’s relative of the CIA and the FBI.
The defendant’s role as a surprise representative for the Chinese government was revealed in a statement following the announcement of the verdict, according to Breon Peace, U.S. counsel for the Eastern District of New York.  ,
Wang’s event is portion of a larger crisis that has pitted U. S. government against China’s spy experts. Over the past few years, the Brooklyn department of the U.S. prosecutor’s office has charged dozens of individuals with espionage or other crimes.
Michael McMahon, a former police officer, and two other people were found guilty in 2023 of trying to apprehend one to China and trying to bring them to justice.
A police station for the Taiwanese government in New York, according to U.S. government, was used to encircle and torment Chinese citizens on American soil. According to Chinese officials, the company assisted Chinese nationals with filling out forms and providing operational services.
Wang’s event part of a growing trend
Wang’s test was welcomed by Chinese state critics. They claimed it demonstrated that the United States was now making serious efforts to combat China’s hacker companies.  ,
Recently, Justice Department officials “were still kind of coming to grips” with the Chinese government’s eavesdropping, said David Laufman, a former commander of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence and export control area.
” Those nights are earlier”, said Laufman, who is now with the law firm Wiggin and Dana. ” Today, we’re seeing case after case being brought”.
Chinese officials have rapidly refuted spy claims. ” In recent years, the U. S. government and media have often hyped up the topic of ‘ Chinese spies,’ many of which afterwards proved to be false”, Liu Pengyu, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Embassy, told RFA.  ,
Prosecutors presented judges with a remarkable amount of evidence, an archive of stuff that covered email, messages, calendars and notes showing Wang’s years-long connection with MSS soldiers.  ,
The information also helped to shed light on the day-to-day functions of China’s mysterious company.
From the beginning of the trial, Wang’s attorneys had their work cut out for them. Wang had immediately claimed he had no relations with MSS when he first approached FBI agents. Finally, he later admitted to speaking with Chinese security officials frequently with an undercover broker.
MSS leaders Feng He, or Boss He, Jie Ji, Ming Li, or Elder Tang, and Little Li, or Keqing Lu, were likewise charged with espionage-related acts. They are probably in China.
A maybe faltering security
Wang’s security team included Kevin Tung, a Mandarin-speaking attorney, and Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, a common defender who the judge assigned to assist with the event on July 2.  ,
Somewhat suddenly, a man who claimed to be a professional was added to Wang’s security team in the test. Though he gave RFA a surname, court records identified him as Wentworth Huang Wang, a Florida agent. The person, who is not related to the accused, has turned up at some pro-China-related activities. Individually, he had just been acquitted of a triple murder in Florida earlier in July.
Shujun Wang’s attorneys testified to the judge that he had spoken to MSS officials to let them know about the work being done in the United States, and that he had never intended to violate any of that statement.
” He’s devoted his life to promoting a free and democratic China through peaceful methods”, Margulis-Ohnuma said of Wang. ” It was for politics. It was not as an agent of the Chinese authorities.
” Professor Wang believes in politics. This is not the history of a dual life or treachery … or of fraud, “he added”. In truth, there was nothing solution. Certainly the CIA, that is. This is not a James Bond movie.”
The famous imaginary detective was juxtaposed for the judge with a photo of Wang waving his arm strangely in the air while wearing a loose-fitting, button-up shirt and a yellow T-shirt.
Wang, he said, was” a forlorn old guy who’s keeping journals and writing publications.”
At different times during the test, the defense attorneys floundered. Margulis-Ohnuma lost his place during one of his court statements. Seconds passed, and the chamber remained motionless until he regained his foundation.  ,
Another time, Judge Denny Chin, who oversaw the prosecution, admonished Tung, telling him during the cross-examination of a hear that he had to ask questions more than present evidence himself.  ,
Wang expressed his own frustration with his lawyer in a field that took place , outside the courtroom. The defendant yelled at Tung about his writing background in court and yelled at him more firmly. Wang also made an effort to send 80 pages of more evidence and hire new attorneys, but the judge turned down both requests.
He claimed in a speech he gave to RFA while the jury was still waiting for the verdict that” this is an unfair trial.” I urge the judge to declare Professor Wang, a well-known author, dead. ”  ,
In the 1990s, Wang had attempted to establish himself in China as an intellectual. He founded the Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization named after Chinese leaders who pushed for state measures, and established himself as a member of the pro-democracy activity in New York.
Accusations of treachery
But, the prosecution argued, Wang began meeting with the MSS soldiers and giving them data, betraying his companions in the pro-democracy activity. He often visited China. From 2015 to 2017, he made at least three times a month. The MSS officials paid for at least one of his trips.
The FBI officials subsequently communicated with him. They inquired about his links with the Chinese security agency after meeting with him on several occasions, including again at a diner in Flushing. One of their meetings was quietly recorded. Lastly, Wang was arrested at his apartment in Flushing.
The prosecution taped him trying to remove obscene information he had sent to the Chinese officials during the test. According to the prosecution, Wang had been living in a double life from 2005 until his imprisonment in March 2022.
” He portrayed himself as an intellectual, an advocate, a pro-democracy argue against the Chinese state,” said Ellen Sise, one of the prosecution, during the test”. In fact, the accused Wang Shujun acted as an illegitimate representative of the Chinese authorities, spying on New Yorkers for years.”
Government lawyers called a dozen witnesses, including Anna Yeung-Cheung, the founder of New York for Hong Kong, a pro-democracy group. Wang had taken a notebook to China to meet with the MSS officers, and her name was written in her name.
An undercover agent testified against the government without the presence of any witnesses to protect their identity, adding another witness. Journalists and others listened through an audio system as they strained to hear their voices in a separate room.
The undercover agent described how they had fabricated employment records for Wang’s MSS handler.
” My objective was to gain the truth,” the agent said. They discussed how Wang had deleted files from his computer to conceal his tracks, preventing the FBI from learning about his ties to the MSS.
