US charges 9 with involvement in Beijing’s ‘Operation Fox Hunt’, including a Chinese prosecutor
- The individuals are believed to be part of China’s ‘Operation Fox Hunt’ programme targeting overseas citizens facing prosecution in China
- A Chinese prosecutor, Tu Lan from the Hanyang People’s Procuratorate, was added as a new defendant in the case
A Chinese prosecutor has been accused of travelling to America to direct a harassment campaign against a US resident and his family, and then ordering the destruction of evidence related to those actions, according to the US Justice Department.
The prosecutor, Tu Lan from the Hanyang People’s Procuratorate, was added as a new defendant in the case. She is accused of helping to bring an unnamed target’s father to the US to “convey a threat” that his family in China would be harmed if he did not return to the country to face prosecution.
“As alleged, the defendants, acting as agents of the [People’s Republic of China], carried out an illegal and clandestine campaign to harass and threaten targeted US residents in order to force them to return to the [People’s Republic of China],” said Jacquelyn Kasulis, the acting US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where the case is being prosecuted.
“Unregistered, roving agents of a foreign power are not permitted to engage in secret surveillance of US residents on American soil, and their illegal conduct will be met with the full force of US law,” she said.