Washington has accused China of trying to undermine the US justice system

In three separate cases, Merrick Garland found that Chinese intelligence agents harassed a fellow citizen in the United States, tried to interfere in the prosecution of a major Chinese telecommunications company (the giant Huawei), and pressured American researchers to work in China.

The lawsuits were “an attempt by the Chinese government to interfere with the rights and freedoms of people in the United States and to undermine our legal system that protects those rights,” Garland said at a news conference.

“The Judiciary will not tolerate any attempt by any foreign power to undermine the rule of law upon which our democracy is founded,” he added.

The announcements come a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping was reappointed as the leader of the Chinese Communist Party and China.

Mr. Among the cases cited by Garland was one involving seven Chinese nationals accused of trying to force a fellow American resident to return to China as part of a Beijing-led forced repatriation campaign.

Given by a US judge under the fictitious identity of John Doe-1, they would have harassed this Chinese national to protect his anonymity and his family within the framework of a “box hunt” operation. Foreigners should be forced to return to China.

Beijing presents the move as a strategy to fight corruption by ensuring that its services respect international laws when traveling abroad.

Two of the accused were arrested in New York on Thursday.

double agent

In the second case, two Chinese intelligence agents have been charged with allegedly trying to block US prosecutions against Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

The two men allegedly hatched a plan to “steal documents and other information,” including “paying a $41,000 bribe in Bitcoin to a U.S. government official.” The accused agents believed the latter had been recruited for China’s benefit, but U.S. officials said he was actually a double agent working for the FBI.

In a third case, four Chinese nationals were charged in connection with “a long-running espionage campaign targeting individuals in the United States to act as agents of the People’s Republic of China.”

According to U.S. officials, from 2008 to 2018, the four men allegedly reached out to university professors and a former federal agent.

Asked during a press conference Monday about the timing of the announcements, the day after Xi Jinping’s historic third coronation, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “When they presented the cases.” [étaient] Ready”.

“If the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party, continues to violate our laws, they will continue to fall for the FBI,” he said.