By ERIC TUCKER, DIDI TANG and NATHAN ELLGREN (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — When a student leader of the historic Tiananmen Square protests decided to run for office in New York in 2022, a Chinese spy quickly got a private investigator to look for any mistresses or tax issues that could ruin the candidate's campaign, according to prosecutors. The spy ominously mentioned that violence would be acceptable if necessary.
As an Iranian journalist and activist who lives in the US critiqued Iran's human rights abuses, Tehran also paid attention. An Eastern European criminal group scoped out her Brooklyn home and planned to kill her for money on behalf of Iran, the Justice Department revealed.
The plan was stopped and criminal charges were brought. These incidents show how countries like China and Iran go to extreme measures to scare, bother, and sometimes plan attacks against political opponents and activists living in the US. They demonstrate the frightening consequences of geopolitical tensions for regular people as governments that historically do not tolerate dissent within their own borders increasingly keep a threatening eye on those who express their opinions thousands of miles away.
The Iranian journalist, Masih Alinejad, explained in an interview, “We are not living in fear or paranoia, but the reality is clear — the Islamic Republic wants us dead, and we have to be cautious every day.”
The issue has caught the attention of the Justice Department, which has charged dozens of suspects with transnational repression in the past five years. Senior FBI officials told The Associated Press that the tactics have become more advanced, including the use of proxies like private investigators and organized crime leaders, and countries are more willing to cross “serious red lines” from harassment into violence as they seek to exert influence abroad and suppress dissent.
According to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss their investigations, foreign adversaries are increasingly prioritizing well-funded intimidation campaigns for their intelligence services, and more countries — including some not traditionally seen as antagonistic to the US — have targeted critics in America and other Western countries.
For example, the Justice Department announced
last November that it had stopped a plot to kill a Sikh activist in New York that officials said was directed by an Indian government official. Rwanda arrested Paul Rusesabagina from “Hotel Rwanda” and sent him back to the country before allowing him to return to the US last year, and the FBI has said that Saudi Arabia has harassed critics online and in person. The Justice Department’s top national security official, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, said, “This is a huge priority for us,” describing an “alarming rise” in government-directed harassment. He said that the legal actions are intended not only to hold harassers responsible but to communicate that the behaviors are 'not acceptable from the perspective of United States sovereignty and defending American values — values around free expression and free association.'
Other countries have also experienced a increase in incidents.
According to a report published in April by Reporters Without Borders, London is considered a 'hotspot' for Iranian attacks on Persian-language broadcasters, with British counterterrorism police investigating an attack one month earlier
against an Iranian television presenter
near his home in London. In Britain and other parts of Europe, harassment and attacks against Russians, including a journalist who became ill from a suspected poisoning in Germany , have frequently been attributed to Russia’s intelligence operativesdespite denials from Moscow. In the U.S., the trend is even more concerning due to a worsening relationship with Iran
tensions with China over various issues like trade, theft of intellectual property, and election interference. U.S. intelligence officials mentioned in a and recent threat assessment that emerging technologies such as generative AI are likely to be misused for future harassment. ‘I’M NOT REALLY FEELING SAFE’.
According to officials and advocates, China and Iran are two of the main offenders.
The Iranian mission at the United Nations did not respond to emails. A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington denied that the country engages in the practice, stating in a release that the government 'adheres strictly to international law, and fully respects the law enforcement sovereignty of other countries.'
The statement said, “We firmly oppose 'long-arm jurisdiction.'”
However, U.S. officials claim that China established a program to do exactly that, initiating
“Operation Fox Hunt”
to locate Chinese expatriates wanted by Beijing, with the intention of pressuring them into returning to face charges. As per a 2020 Justice Department case accusing a group of Chinese operatives and an American private investigator, a former city government official in China living in New Jersey discovered a note in Chinese characters attached to his front door that read: “If you are willing to go back to the mainland and spend 10 years in prison your wife and children will be all right. That’s the end of this matter!” Although the majority of defendants charged in transnational repression schemes are based in their home country, resulting in rare arrests and legal actions, that specific case led to
convictions last year of the private investigator
and two Chinese citizens living in the U.S. Bob Fu, a Chinese American Christian pastor whose organization, ChinaAid, advocates for religious freedom in China, stated that he has been subjected to extensive harassment campaigns for many years. He believes that the well-coordinated gatherings of large groups of protesters outside his residence in west Texas can be linked to the Chinese government. Fake hotel bookings and false bomb threats have been made using his name. People have also been giving out flyers showing him as the devil and there were threats to detonate explosives. He has started to be more careful when he travels, including not letting his staff share his plans ahead of time. He has also moved from his home after being advised by law enforcement.
Fu told AP that he doesn't feel safe. He is worried about going back to China, where he grew up and left as a religious refugee more than 25 years ago. He believes that he is wanted there.
In 2020, a group of protesters targeted Wu Jianmin, a former student leader in China’s pro-democracy movement, outside his home in Irvine, California. The harassment lasted over two months.
He said that people shouted slogans and verbally abused him outside his home. They also marched in the neighborhood, handed out various pictures and flyers, and put them in the neighbors’ mailboxes.
Wu thinks that the people behind the harassment include retired Communist Party members in the U.S., their children, members of Chinese associations with close ties to the Chinese government, and fugitives seeking favors with Beijing.
Wu mentioned in an interview in Mandarin Chinese that the main goal is the same for all of them. He believes that, as instructed by the Communist Party, their task is to suppress pro-democracy activists abroad.
Last year, the Justice Department
charged about three dozen officers
in China’s national police force for using social media to target dissidents within the U.S. This included creating fake accounts to share harassing videos and comments. They also arrested two men who were said to have helped establish a secret police outpost in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood on behalf of the Chinese government. The year before, federal prosecutors in New York revealed a series of wide-ranging plots to silence dissidents
, including a scheme to gather information about a relatively unknown and ultimately unsuccessful candidate for Congress. Other targets haveincluded American figure skater Alysa Liu
and her father, Arthur, a political refugee who prosecutors say was monitored by a man posing as an Olympics committee member, requesting their passport information. A sculpture created by a dissident artist in California that showed the coronavirus with the face of Chinese President Xi Jinping was also taken apart and burned. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the leading Democrat on a House select committee focused on China, said that the Chinese operatives who have been charged are not acting independently of the Chinese government.
‘ERASE HIS HEAD FROM HIS TORSO’
In response to global events, there have been plans of violence at times.
In 2022, prosecutors charged an Iranian operative with offering $300,000 to
have Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton “eliminated”
as revenge for an airstrike that killed Iran’s most powerful general. A new threat from Tehran was revealed this year when the Justice Department accused an Iranian, identified by officials as a drug trafficker and intelligence operative, as well as two Canadians — one of whom is a full member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang — in a murder-for-hire scheme against two Iranians who had fled to Maryland.
“We need to make his head separate from his body,” one of the hired Canadians is alleged to have said before the plot was disrupted. Alinejad, the Iranian journalist, had been targeted even before the murder-for-hire plot was announced by the Justice Department last year. In 2021, prosecutors charged a group of Iranians working at the behest of the country’s intelligence services with planning to abduct her. Alinejad continues to be a prominent journalist and vocal opposition activist and is determined to continue speaking out, including
at a sentencing hearing last year for a woman
who prosecutors say unknowingly funded the kidnapping plot.
However, the details of the plots are vividly imprinted in her mind. The criminal cases revealed the seriousness of the threat she faced and the intrusive surveillance and grisly preparations involved, including researching how to remove Alinejad from New York using a military-style speedboat and discussing tactics to lure her from her home, such as requesting flowers from the garden outside. One of the defendants in the murder-for-hire plot was apprehended in 2022 after being found driving around Alinejad’s Brooklyn neighborhood with a loaded rifle and ammunition. Another suspect was extradited from the Czech Republic in February to face charges
. Two others have also been arrested.
The FBI thwarted the plot but also advised Alinejad to relocate, which she did. However, this meant bidding farewell to her cherished garden, from which she derived joy by sharing homegrown cucumbers and other vegetables with neighbors. “They didn’t kill me physically, but they killed my bond with my garden and my neighbors,” Alinejad remarked.By ERIC TUCKER, DIDI TANG and NATHAN ELLGREN (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — After a student leader of the historic Tiananmen Square protests entered a 2022 congressional race in New York, a Chinese intelligence operative wasted little time enlisting a private investigator to hunt for any mistresses or tax problems that could upend the candidate’s […]
The FBI disrupted the plot but also encouraged Alinejad to move, which she has done. But that also meant saying goodbye to her beloved garden, which had brought her joy as she gave homegrown cucumbers and other vegetables to neighbors.
“They didn’t kill me physically, but they killed my relationship with my garden, with my neighbors,” Alinejad said.
