In the United States, dissidents are facing extreme measures from the Chinese Communist Party, such as threats, harassment, and even orchestrated attacks.
According to an analysis by the Associated Press of cases brought by the US Department of Justice from 2018 to 2024, there have been over 50 individuals prosecuted in connection with cross-border repression by the Chinese Communist Party, while around 8 individuals were related to Iran.
The cross-border repression actions by the Chinese Communist Party have drawn the attention of the US Department of Justice. In the past, most defendants accused of transnational repression conspiracies were located abroad, but now more suspects are being promptly arrested and prosecuted by US authorities.
On May 6th, the Associated Press reported that US prosecutors stated that a Chinese intelligence officer hired a private detective to gather dirt on a Chinese-American candidate in 2022, such as whether they had mistresses or tax issues, as the candidate was a student leader who had participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
The Chinese spy even told contacts that they were prepared to use violence if necessary to prevent the candidate from running.
According to a notice from the US Department of Justice, another authoritarian state, Iran, sent a member of an Eastern European organized crime group to scout the residence of an exiled Iranian journalist and activist in Brooklyn, New York, and plotted a hired assassination to kill the individual. Fortunately, the Department of Justice thwarted this plan in time and brought criminal charges against the perpetrators.
Senior officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation told the Associated Press that these cross-border repression actions are becoming more complex, involving the use of private detectives and organized crime figures as foreign agents.
They stated that these authoritarian states, while seeking to project power, are also increasingly engaging in “flagrant violations of other countries’ red lines,” ranging from harassment to violence abroad.
These officials said that foreign adversaries prioritize well-funded intimidation activities as part of their intelligence efforts.
Matthew Olsen, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice, stated, “Transnational repression is a manifestation of the broader conflict between authoritarian regimes and democratic nations. Geopolitically, this has been a constantly evolving theme over the past decade.”
US officials identified China (CCP) and Iran as the two primary adversaries. For instance, Beijing has initiated a “Operation Fox Hunt” to pursue their so-called wanted fugitives in the US and force them to return home to face charges.
In a 2020 case where the Department of Justice charged multiple Chinese operatives and one American private investigator, a former Chinese government official in New Jersey found a Chinese note on his front door stating, “If you are willing to return to the mainland to serve ten years in prison, your wife and children will be safe. This ends here!”
Previously, it was uncommon for most defendants accused of transnational repression conspiracies to be arrested and prosecuted by US authorities due to being overseas. Currently, in the 2020 case, 8 individuals were charged, and 5 were arrested. The private detective and two Chinese-American accomplices residing in the US were convicted.
Chinese underground Christian pastor Bob Fu stated that he has been subjected to extensive harassment by the Chinese Communist Party over the years. At times, large groups of protesters gathered outside his home in western Texas for several days, displaying coordinated actions that he believes are related to the Chinese Communist government.
Fu’s organization, China Aid, advocates for religious freedom in China.
He found that someone deliberately made false bomb threats in his name to law enforcement, claiming he planned to detonate explosives. Additionally, flyers slandering him were distributed to his neighbors.
He said he has learned to take precautionary measures when traveling, such as requesting staff not to disclose his itinerary prematurely and relocating at the urging of law enforcement.
“I really feel unsafe,” Fu told the Associated Press. Regarding returning to China, he said, “I might be able to go back, but it would be a one-way ticket. I am certain I am on their (CCP) wanted list.”
Wu Jianmin is a former student leader of the 1989 Chinese democracy movement. In 2020, a group of demonstrators gathered outside his home in Irvine, California, harassing him for over two months.
“They chanted slogans and insulted me outside my house,” Wu Jianmin said. “They marched around the area, distributed various images and fliers, and put them in the neighbors’ mailboxes.”
Wu Jianmin stated that these harassers include retired Communist Party members and their children living in the US, members of Chinese community organizations closely aligned with the Chinese government, and even fugitives negotiating with Beijing.
“The ultimate goal is the same,” Wu Jianmin said. “Under the instructions of the Communist Party, their mission is to suppress overseas democracy activists.”
In 2023, the US Department of Justice charged over thirty Chinese police officers with using social media to target different political dissidents within the US, creating fake accounts to share harassing videos and comments, and arrested two men who ran an overseas Chinese police station in Manhattan’s Chinatown.
Other harassed targets included American figure skater Alysa Liu and her father, Arthur Liu.
Arthur Liu, a former chairman of the Guangzhou Association of Autonomous Learning in 1989 and a key figure in the “June 4th” student movement, later rescued and arrived in the US through the “Yellow Bird Operation,” now a practicing lawyer.
In October 2021, when 16-year-old Alysa Liu represented the US at the Beijing Winter Olympics, FBI agents informed Arthur Liu in advance of the activities planned by Chinese agents.
Ultimately, Alysa Liu participated in the Beijing Winter Olympics without interference, as the US State Department and the US Olympic Committee ensured stringent protection for her during the games in China, dispatching at least two individuals to protect her at all times.
During the Winter Olympics, Alysa Liu told her father that late one night after the free skate competition, a stranger approached her at a buffet restaurant, followed her, and invited her to his apartment.
Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Committee on China, when speaking about the charged Chinese operatives, said, “We should not harbor any illusions that these people are rogue actors or unrelated to the Chinese (CCP) government.”