Chinese intelligence officers charged over plot to obstruct investigation against Huawei
Two Chinese intelligence officers have been charged in a United States court over alleged botched bribery claims targeting a U.S. law-enforcement official ostensibly to obtain inside information about the U.S. criminal case against Chinese tech giant Huawei.
Guochun He and Zheng Wang are accused of paying tens of thousands of dollars in digital currency, along with cash and jewelry, to a U.S. official they thought they had recruited as an asset but was actually a double agent working for the FBI.
“Today’s cases make clear that Chinese agents will not hesitate to break the law and to violate international norms in the process,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said.
Attorney General Merrick Garland also announced charges against four other Chinese nationals, accusing them of using the cover of an academic institute to try to procure sensitive technology and equipment as well as interfering with protests that “would have been embarrassing to the Chinese government.”
“They try to silence anyone who fights back against their theft companies, politicians, individuals just as they try to silence anyone who fights back against their other aggressions,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said.
An additional two people were arrested and five others charged with harassing someone living in the U.S. to return to China as part of what Beijing calls “Operation Fox Hunt.”
Huawei was charged in 2019 with bank fraud and again the following year with new counts of fraudulent conspiracy and a plot to steal trade secrets.
