A New York man has been charged with acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government in the United States, the Department of Justice (DoJ) said Wednesday.
Yuanjun Tang, 67, a naturalized US citizen, is accused of acting as Beijing's agent in the US by "completing tasks" requested of him by China's Ministry of State Security (MSS). From 2018 to 2023 Tang "regularly received instructions from and reported to" an MSS intelligence officer via email, encrypted chats, audio and video calls about US-based Chinese pro-democracy individuals and groups.
He also stands accused of making materially false statements to the FBI, as he claimed he no longer had access to an email he used to communicate with his MSS handler. Tang was arrested on Wednesday in Flushing, Queens.