US arrests Chinese researcher accused of hiding military ties, saying suspect Tang Juan does not have diplomatic immunity
- Tang Juan, one of four visiting researchers recently charged with visa fraud, is apprehended on Thursday evening, says senior Justice Department official
- Local news outlets report a large truck outside the Chinese consulate in Houston being loaded by masked workers as the closure deadline nears
A Chinese researcher accused of hiding her military affiliations and believed to have been sheltering for weeks in the Chinese consulate in San Francisco has been arrested by US authorities, officials announced on Friday.
Tang Juan, one of four visiting researchers recently charged with visa fraud, was apprehended on Thursday evening, a senior Justice Department official told reporters during a background briefing. The official declined to disclose details of Tang’s arrest, including whether she had volunteered herself to authorities.
Her status was not considered by officials to qualify her for “diplomatic immunity,” said the official, who noted that while the arrest occurred in San Francisco, the charges in the case lay in Sacramento, where she is expected to appear in court later on Friday.
In a court filing unsealed on July 20, prosecutors wrote that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had assessed that following a search and interview of Tang on June 20, Tang went to the Chinese consulate in San Francisco, where the FBI said she had remained, despite charges being brought against her on June 26.
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According to court documents, Tang entered the US last December on an educational exchange visa to conduct cancer treatment research at the University of California, Davis, but did not disclose apparent military ties in her visa application.
She denied to FBI agents that she had served in the military, and said she did not understand the meaning of the military insignia on various uniforms she was pictured wearing in photographs discovered in authorities’ investigations.