(NewsNation) — A naturalized American citizen who helped start a pro-democracy organization in New York has been convicted of acting as a secret agent for the Chinese government.
On Tuesday, a federal jury found Shujun Wang, 75, guilty on all four counts of an indictment accusing him of:
- Acting and conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the U.S. attorney general
- Criminal use of identification
- Making false statements to law enforcement
Wang was one of the founders of the Flushing-based Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang Memorial Foundation, an organization that actively opposes the communist regime in the People’s Republic of China. He now faces up to 25 years in prison.
According to U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs, Wang “used his position within the Memorial Foundation and his status within the Chinese diaspora community to collect information about prominent activists, academics and dissidents, and reported that information to the PRC government.”
That includes spying on those who advocate for Hong Kong’s democracy, Taiwan’s independence, justice for the Uyghur minority group and Tibetan freedom.
It’s a crime that U.S. Attorney Breon Peace says “could have been the plot of a John LeCarre or Graham Greene spy novel,” with the China native acting under PRC orders since at least 2006.
Those orders were given in both face-to-face meetings and via encrypted messaging applications, with his findings detailed in approximately 163 “diary entries.”
“Today’s verdict demonstrates that those who would seek to advance the Chinese government’s agenda of transnational repression will be held accountable,” said Matthew G. Olsen, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
Wang is set to be sentenced Jan. 9, 2025. His co-defendants, China’s Ministry of State Security officials Feng He, Jie Ji, Ming Li and Keqing Lu, remain at large.