by WorldTribune Staff, April 18, 2025 Real World News
A history scholar convicted of spying on Chinese dissidents in the United States has been spared prison time.
Nicholas Eftimiades, a professor at Penn State University and expert on Chinese intelligence operations and tactics, noted on LinkedIn:
Wang Shujun“Wang Shujun from New York City was just sentenced for spying on Chinese democracy advocates. He was an MSS (Ministry of State Security) asset for 13 years. The 75-year-old received 3 years probation.”
Wang was convicted in August 2024. He was sentenced on Monday by U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin to time served and three years’ supervised release
Wang was a history professor in China. He became a visiting fellow at Columbia University for a time in the 1990s and emigrated to the U.S., where he wrote books and co-founded a pro-democracy group in New York City.
But prosecutors said Wang’s pro-democracy advocacy was a facade.
Wang was able to gain credibility with sincere activists, allowing him to gather information on Hong Kong democracy protesters, supporters of Taiwanese independence, Uyghur and Tibetan activists and others, prosecutors said.
He relayed the intelligence to the Ministry of State Security in the form of emails styled as “diaries,” according to prosecutors and trial evidence. The messages concerned demonstrations planned during Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’ s visits to the U.S., anniversary events for the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, and more.
Wang also met with MSS officials on trips to China, according to prosecutors and evidence.
One activist and fellow academic mentioned in the “diaries,” Ming Xia, told the court in a letter that he’d altered his daily routine as a result. Another activist, Anna Yeung-Cheung, wrote that Wang’s “betrayal not only damaged personal bonds and shattered our collective trust but also exacerbated harmful stereotypes that depict Chinese and Asian Americans as potential spies.”
Eftimiades noted in a 2024 blog that Wang’s case “is one of several that illustrate China’s Ministry of State Security using assets to collect information about individuals and groups viewed as potentially adverse to the interests of the PRC. The Chinese Communist Party refers to these entities as ‘the five Poisons’ as they are perceived to present a threat to CCP absolute rule.”
“The five Poisons” are:
• Ethnic Uyghur supporters of the East Turkestan independence movement.
• Tibetan supporters of the Tibetan independence movement.
• Adherents of the Falun Gong.
• Members of the Chinese democracy movement.
• Advocates for the Taiwan independence movement.
In a New York Times Magazine interview after his conviction, Wang referred to the diaries a hobby and claimed he didn’t know his contacts in China worked for the MSS. At other points, he acknowledged sharing information with Chinese officials, but insisted he was just trying to promote democracy to the communist government, according to the magazine.
Wang’s attorney, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, called the sentence a “wise” decision.
“It appropriately recognized that his conduct was not driven by any financial motive and did limited, if any harm,” said Margulis-Ohnuma, who also noted that Wang has multiple health problems.
In court filings, Margulis-Ohnuma said the case didn’t depict a debonair spy but rather “an aging democracy activist — lonesome and starved for attention, eager to please and always delighted to engage — who occasionally provided mostly-useless information to the Chinese government and lied about it as he became older, more impaired and more isolated.”
Support Free Press Foundation
The American Free Press is Back!
Chinese spy, who stalked dissidents in U.S., beats the rap added by Editor Two on April 18, 2025
View all posts by Editor Two →
Source link