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A jury found Wang Shujun guilty on four counts including acting
as a foreign agent without notifying the U.S. attorney general
and lying to U.S. authorities, following a week-long trial in
Brooklyn federal court.
Wang could face up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced on
Jan. 9, 2025.
Federal prosecutors said Wang, a naturalized U.S. citizen,
portrayed himself as a fierce opponent of the ruling Chinese
Communist Party to gain the trust of Hong Kong pro-democracy
activists, advocates for Taiwanese independence and campaigners
for Uyghur and Tibetan rights.
Prosecutors said Wang was actually spying on the activists and
sharing his findings with four officials in China's Ministry of
State Security (MSS), an intelligence service.
"The indictment could have been the plot of a spy novel, but the
evidence is shockingly real," Breon Peace, the top federal
prosecutor in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, said in a
statement. "Wang was willing to betray those who respected and
trusted him."
Wang, who emigrated to the United States in 1994, was arrested
in March 2022.
Defense lawyer Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma said Wang spoke to the
intelligence officials about the pro-democracy movement to win
their support and promote social change, and was not acting as
their agent.
Margulis-Ohnuma said he respected the jury's verdict and would
request a sentence that spares Wang the "agony" of prison.
"We look forward to sentencing," Margulis-Ohnuma told reporters
after the verdict. "He's a 76-year-old man. He certainly didn't
mean to hurt anyone. He's spent his life fighting the communist
regime."
The U.S. Department of Justice has in recent years cracked down
on what it calls "transnational repression" by U.S. adversaries
such as China and Iran.
That term refers to the surveillance, intimidation and in some
cases attempted repatriation or murder of activists against
those governments.
Last year, a former New York City police sergeant was convicted
of acting as a Chinese agent by intimidating a U.S.-based
fugitive to return to his homeland and face charges.
U.S. prosecutors have also charged four Chinese intelligence
officers who allegedly acted as Wang's handlers. Those officers
are at large and believed to be in China.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New YorkEditing by Matthew Lewis)
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