Man gets 2 years in US prison for aiding pushy effort to get ex-official to return to China

NEW YORK (AP) — A man convicted in the first trial highlighting U.S. claims that China harasses its critics overseas was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison for his role in a creepy campaign to get a former official to return to his homeland. Zhu Yong, a Chinese retiree who faces likely deportation from the U.S. after his prison term, expressed regret while suggesting he didn't initially think through the implications of what he was doing. “I also plead to the nation, the victims and every American citizen for their forgiveness,” he told a court through a Mandarin-language interpreter. He begged a judge for “a chance to renew myself” and to see his grandchild grow up in the U.S. Zhu, 68, was one of three men found guilty of various charges in a 2023 trial that portrayed cross-border surveillance and stalking in suburban New Jersey. The target, a former Chinese city official named Xu Jin, was subjected to subtle and overt pressure to go back to China, where he and his wife have been accused of bribery, according to testimony. They deny the allegation and say he was targeted because of internal politics within China’s Communist government. Their adult daughter's Facebook friends got disparaging messages about him. Xu's octogenarian father was abruptly flown from China to the U.S. to implore him to come back. Finally, an ominous note was taped on the man's own New Jersey door. “If you are willing to go back to the mainland and spend 10 years in prison,” the message read in translation, "your wife and children will be all right. That’s the end of this matter!” Zhu, who also goes by Jason Zhu and Yong Zhu, was convicted of charges including stalking and acting as an illegal foreign agent. The charges carried the potential for up to 25 years in prison; prosecutors sought a roughly six-year sentence. Calling the crimes “a threat to this country's national security," U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen quizzed Zhu about what he was thinking when he agreed to help a Chinese government figure find Xu. A former official in the city of Wuhan, Xu had left China with his wife in 2010. Zhu — who didn't testify at his trial — told the judge he'd been asked only to help locate Xu and hadn't known what was in store for the ex-official. The defendant said he'd been told Xu owed money. “At some point, Mr. Zhu, did you believe that your actions were going to result in some harm?” the judge asked. “After I was arrested, I realized that could be the case,” he said. Prosecutors have called the case an example of transnational repression, or governments working to intimidate, silence or even attack dissenters beyond their borders. Several U.S. prosecutions have centered on China’s “Operation Fox Hunt,” a nearly decade-old initiative that Beijing characterizes as a pursuit of fugitives abroad, including officials accused of corruption. The U.S. and China don’t have an extradition treaty, meaning Beijing can’t legally compel people to be returned for prosecution. The Chinese government has denied threatening people to get them back. Zhu and co-defendants Michael McMahon and Zheng Congying didn't dispute taking various actions in the case. Zhu helped hire and brief McMahon, a retired U.S. police sergeant turned private investigator, to find their quarry. At trial, defense lawyers said the men believed they were working on behalf of private individuals or a company, not Chinese authorities. The attorneys said the three were told they were helping collect a debt or accomplish some other business. Zhu's current lawyer, Benjamin Silverman, said Wednesday that his client came to understand that Chinese government officials were involved but didn't grasp how seriously Xu might be pressed to return. He “feels terribly about what he did,” the attorney said after court. The judge concluded Zhu acted knowingly, but naively. While not intending to harm anyone, he “really failed to appreciate the scope and the gravity of his conduct and the real harm he has caused to these victims and to this country,” she said. Zhu is due to turn himself in April 15 for his prison term. McMahon and Zheng are to be sentenced later this winter. Eight other people also have been charged in the alleged conspiracy. Three have pleaded guilty. Five others are believed to be in China.