Scholar Used Pro-Democracy Activism as a Cover for Espionage
A Chinese American academic, Shujun Wang, was convicted on Tuesday by a federal jury in New York for using his status as a pro-democracy activist to secretly gather information on dissidents and relay it to the Chinese government. Wang, who co-founded a pro-democracy organization in New York, had allegedly lived a double life for over a decade at the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security.
Decade-long deception unveiled
Prosecutors argued that Wang masqueraded as a critic of the Chinese government to infiltrate circles of genuine dissidents. “The defendant pretended to be opposed to the Chinese government so that he could get close to people who were actually opposed to the Chinese government,” stated Assistant U.S. Attorney Ellen Sise during the trial. Wang was accused of betraying the trust of those who confided in him, reporting their activities back to China.
Wang was found guilty of conspiring to act as a foreign agent without notifying the U.S. Attorney General, a charge that carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Despite the conviction, Wang has pleaded not guilty. His attorneys have not yet commented on the verdict.
Espionage tactics and undercover operations
Wang, who moved to New York in 1994 after teaching at a Chinese university, later became a U.S. citizen and helped establish the Queens-based Hu Yaobang Zhao Ziyang Memorial Foundation. Prosecutors revealed that Wang composed emails, styled as “diaries,” detailing the activities and conversations of Chinese government critics. These messages, instead of being sent, were saved as drafts, allowing Chinese intelligence officers to access them using a shared password.
One such draft described events commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, while others detailed plans for demonstrations during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visits to the U.S. Additionally, Wang allegedly relayed information about pro-democracy events and meetings with prominent Hong Kong dissidents through encrypted messages.
FBI investigation
During FBI interviews from 2017 to 2021, Wang initially denied any contact with China’s Ministry of State Security. However, he later admitted on videotape that the agency had asked him to gather information on democracy advocates, though he claimed he only provided publicly available information.
Wang’s defense portrayed him as an open and sociable academic with nothing to hide. Defense attorney Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma questioned an undercover agent who met with Wang in 2021, asking if Wang appeared “open and talkative.” The agent, who testified under a pseudonym, confirmed Wang’s demeanor but noted Wang’s efforts to explain his “diaries” as advertisements for the foundation’s meetings or newspaper write-ups.
FBI agent Garrett Igo testified that when Wang learned in 2019 that investigators would search his phone for contacts with the Chinese government, Wang’s response was indifferent: “Do anything. I don’t care,” Igo recalled.