Feds accuse pro-democracy activist who once protested in Tiananmen Square of secretly working for China’s intelligence agency decades later

Washington — Federal prosecutors in New York filed criminal charges against a Chinese dissident living in the U.S., accusing him of covertly working for China’s intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, and spying on pro-democracy activist groups, according to a criminal complaint obtained by CBS News. 

Yuanjun Tang once protested against the Chinese Communist Party during the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations, court documents said, and fled to Taiwan and the U.S. But prosecutors alleged decades later, he agreed to work for China’s intelligence agency in a bid to see his family living in mainland China. 

Investigators said Tang first sought opportunities to visit his family in 2018 and was ultimately introduced to an unnamed intelligence officer. The two allegedly began communicating and the Chinese intelligence agent pushed Tang to collect “information about PRC Dissidents, pro-democracy events, and the political asylum process,” according to court documents. 

The Chinese intelligence officer also paid members of Tang’s family after the pair entered the alleged partnership, prosecutors said. 

Tang is accused of passing on information about events planned in New York to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre in 2021 and a year later, he allegedly provided the Chinese intelligence officer officer with information about an unnamed Congressional candidate’s campaign team and fundraising. The candidate was also a Chinese dissident and human rights activist.

Court records alleged Tang also helped the agent monitor a group chat used by Chinese dissidents living in the U.S. “The group consisted of approximately 140 members, including confirmed PRC Dissidents such as the Congressional Candidate and a known PRC Dissident based in Flushing,” investigators wrote.

Tang is charged with three counts, including acting as an agent of a foreign government and making false statements to investigators. 

The FBI interviewed Tang in July 2023 and extracted data from five of his phones, an online account used by the the Chinese intelligence officer, and Tang’s computer. They recovered text and audio messages that Tang allegedly exchanged with the Chinese intelligence officer, photos and videos of pro-democracy events, screenshots of conversations between dissidents, and “a Chinese-language copy of the FBI’s Transnational Repression Threat Intimidation Guide.” 

In one of the messages — sent on June 3, 2023, the Chinese intelligence officer allegedly urged Tang to “work harder.” 

“Work harder this month. You have to send over some new stuff with utmost priority,” the message directed, court documents revealed. 

According to investigators, Tang traveled to mainland China or Macau on at least three occasions between 2019 and 2023 to allegedly meet with the Chinese intelligence officer. During a 2022 meeting, prosecutors said the agent installed a “bug” in one of Tang’s cellphones that “caused any photo, screenshot, or voice memorandum generated or captured on the Compromised Phone to be immediately transmitted” to the officer. 

Prosecutors alleged Tang had not notified the U.S. federal government about his work for China’s intelligence agency as required by law. He was arrested on Wednesday. 

The Justice Department charged numerous individuals tied to transnational repression cases in recent years.      

Communities of dissidents and pro-democracy activists living in the U.S. have long been targets of China’s intelligence agency, which uses the families of the activists still living in the mainland as a form of coercion as prosecutors alleged occurred in Tang’s case.

Earlier this month, a jury in New York convicted a naturalized U.S. citizen of Chinese dissent who led a pro-democracy group of secretly working with Chinese intelligence officers to surveille dissidents.

And last year, the FBI arrested two defendants on charges that they set up and operated an illegal Chinese police station in the middle of New York City in order to influence and intimidate dissidents critical of the Chinese government in the U.S.