Man Known as Pro-Democracy Activist Jailed in US for Passing Intelligence on Dissidents to China

“The indictment could be the plot of a spy novel, but the evidence is shockingly real and establishes that the defendant was a covert agent of the Chinese government,” Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement after the verdict.

Wang has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers have portrayed him as someone who was open with U.S. authorities about activities he viewed as harmless and have denied that his communications actually took place under the supervision or control of Chinese officials.

“The jury found that to be the case, and that was enough to convict him, even though there was no evidence that his actions caused any harm, conferred any benefit on the Chinese government, or that Professor Wang is anything other than a patriotic American who has dedicated his life to fighting the authoritarian regime in China,” defense attorney Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma said after the verdict.

Wang, 75, was convicted of charges including conspiracy to act as a foreign agent without notifying the attorney general. The charges carry potential penalties of up to 25 years in prison, although sentencing guidelines in a given case can vary based on the defendant’s history and other factors.

Wang is scheduled to be sentenced on January 9. Meanwhile, four Chinese officials charged with him remain at large.

They are among dozens of people that U.S. prosecutors have pursued to combat what Washington sees as “transnational repression,” or sending government agents to harass, threaten or silence critics living abroad. The Chinese embassy in Washington disputes that the country engages in the practice, saying it does not interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, upholds international law and respects the judicial sovereignty of foreign states.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy, ​​said Tuesday he was not familiar with the details of Wang’s case but said China opposes “slander,” “political manipulation” and “the malicious fabrication of the so-called U.S. ‘transnational suppression’ narrative and the open persecution of officials from relevant Chinese departments.”

Wang came to New York in 1994 to teach after graduating from a Chinese university. He later became a U.S. citizen.

He helped establish the Queens-based Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang Memorial Foundation, named after two Chinese Communist Party leaders who were sympathetic to calls for reform in the 1980s. The foundation was sent a message seeking comment on Wang’s case.

Prosecutors say that under the guise of promoting change in China, Wang acted as a secret conduit to feed Beijing the information it needed about Hong Kong anti-democracy protesters, Taiwanese independence advocates, Uighur and Tibetan activists and others in the United States and elsewhere.

Wang wrote emails – known as “diaries” – in which he described conversations, meetings and plans with various critics of the Chinese government.

One of the messages referred to events commemorating the 1989 protests and bloody crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, prosecutors said. Other emails talked about people planning demonstrations during various visits that Chinese President Xi Jinping has made to the United States.

Prosecutors say that instead of sending emails and creating a digital trail, Wang saved them in a draft form that Chinese intelligence agents could read by logging in using a shared password.

In other encrypted messages, Wang provided details of upcoming pro-democracy events and plans to meet with a prominent Hong Kong dissident while he was in the United States, according to the indictment.

FBI agents testified that during a series of interviews with the FBI between 2017 and 2021, Wang initially claimed he had no contacts with the Ministry of State Security, but later admitted in a video recording that the intelligence agency had asked him to gather information on pro-democracy activists and that he had sometimes done so.

However, they claim that he did not convey anything of real value, merely information that was already in the public domain.

Wang’s lawyers portrayed him as a gregarious scientist who had nothing to hide.

“Overall, it would be fair to say he was very open and talkative with you, right?” Margulis-Ohnuma asked the undercover agent who contacted Wang in 2021 under the pretext of being connected to the Chinese security ministry.

“He was,” said the agent, who testified under a pseudonym. He recorded the conversation with Wang at the latter’s Connecticut home.

“Did he seem a little lonely?” Margulis-Ohnuma asked a moment later. The agent said he didn’t remember.

Wang told agents that his “diaries” were advertisements for foundation meetings or notes he published in newspapers, according to testimony. He also suggested to the undercover agent that publishing them would be a way to deflect any suspicions from U.S. authorities.

Another agent, Garrett Igo, told jurors that when Wang learned in 2019 that investigators would search his phone for contacts with the Chinese government, he hesitated for a moment.

“And then he said, ‘Do whatever. I don’t care,'” Igo recalled.