US officials said a Chinese investigator who fled to the country’s consulate in San Francisco is in custody and is likely to appear in court on Friday.
Authorities informed reporters on Friday that they refused to discuss the circumstances of the arrest, but the US police had been searching for Juan Tang, a UC Davis investigator who was accused of lying about his military service in China. .
Days after US agents interviewed Tang last month, prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against her in federal court, under seal, seeking an arrest warrant for visa fraud.
A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry accused the United States of “political persecution” on Thursday in response to a question about the case, but did not say whether Tang was being protected by diplomats. “We urge the United States to stop using any excuse to limit, harass, and crack down on Chinese academics and students in the United States,” spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference in Beijing.
