US charges California tour guide Xuehua Peng with spying for China and passing along national security secrets
- Xuehua Peng, a naturalised US citizen known as Edward, is accused of using coded messages and secret ‘drop box’ deliveries to help pass on classified material
- ‘The FBI secretly filmed Peng conducting dead drops and intercepted his telephone conversations with Ministry of State Security handlers in China’
A naturalised American citizen of Chinese descent living in northern California has been charged with handing over classified national security secrets to Chinese officials using coded messages and secret “drop box” deliveries, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Monday by the US Department of Justice.
The 22-page complaint accuses Xuehua Peng, also known as Edward Peng, 56, of being an illegal foreign agent directed by China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS).
“His arrest exposes and disrupts an operation by those Chinese intelligence officers to collect such information without having to step foot in this country,” Assistant Attorney General of National Security John Demers said in a statement. “This case illustrates the seriousness of Chinese espionage efforts and the determination of the United States to thwart them.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Peng – who reportedly had a degree in mechanical engineering and was trained in traditional Chinese medicine but worked most recently as a tour guide for Chinese tourists – was arrested on Friday at his home and appeared in federal court in San Francisco the same day. His next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.