Chinese and American national flags wave at the entrance to a company office building in Beijing.
Wang Zhao | AFP | fake pictures
The FBI alleges that a biology-focused investigator who lied about her connection to the Chinese military to receive a U.S. visa has avoided arrest by taking refuge in the Chinese consulate in San Francisco.
According to court documents, Tang Juan received a nonimmigrant visa last fall to conduct research at the University of California, Davis. But after FBI agents found photos of her in military uniform online, they interviewed her on June 20 about her visa application. She said she had never served in the military and was not a member of the Communist Party, according to the documents.
After that encounter with the FBI, he went to the San Francisco consulate, where he still remains, the FBI alleges. The government filed federal charges against Tang for visa fraud on June 26.
“The FBI evaluates that, at some point after Tang’s search and interview on June 20, 2020, Tang went to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, where the FBI evaluates that she has stayed,” the US attorneys wrote in a court filing on July 20. .
The presentations come at a time of increased tension between the United States and China, and increased scrutiny of possible economic espionage by Chinese citizens working in the United States.
On Wednesday, the United States Department of State ordered China to close a consulate in Houston, Texas. Authorities said the move was made to protect US intellectual property and “private information.” On Tuesday, the Justice Department claimed that two Chinese citizens had attempted to steal trade secrets by hacking into companies working on a vaccine for Covid-19.
Trump administration officials, including FBI Director Christopher Wray, have loudly criticized China’s use of cyber attacks to steal intellectual property from American institutions. The United States has also tried to block Huawei Technologies for fear that wireless networks using its technology could be used to spy on Americans.
The detail about Tang’s current refuge at the consulate was revealed as part of a separate case about a different Chinese citizen wanted for visa fraud. In the filing, American lawyers try to connect Tang’s case to other investigators with Chinese military ties, focusing on a university in China, called FMMU, which is affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army (EPL).
“The defendant’s case is not isolated, but appears to be part of a program conducted by
the PLA, and specifically FMMU or partner institutions, to send military scientists to the United States with false pretenses with false covers or false statements about their true employment, “the attorneys wrote.” There is evidence in at least one of these cases of a military scientist copying or stealing information from US institutions under the leadership of military superiors in China. “
Axios, who previously reported on Tang’s presentation, suggested that the use of diplomatic immunity, as consulates enjoy, to protect someone accused of crimes is an unusual move for Chinese diplomats. The Vienna Convention, which is the agreement that describes how diplomats should behave when they are in a foreign country, says that embassy or consulate employees with criminal immunity still have a duty to “respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State “
The United States government said in the July 20 filing: “As the Tang case demonstrates, the Chinese consulate in San Francisco offers a potential safe harbor for an official EPL intention to avoid prosecution in the United States.”
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington DC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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