China’s malicious influence in American politics has exposed itself through a series of reported attempts by Chinese spies to retaliate against outspoken opponents of the Chinese government. Qiming Lin, an alleged Ministry of State Security agent for the Chinese government, hired a private investigator in the U.S. to end a candidate’s run for congress by any means necessary. Any means necessary included destroying his reputation, physically incapacitating him, or even killing him. The victim is not named specifically, but is alleged to be Yan Xiong: a naturalized U.S. citizen from Beijing, retired U.S. Army Captain, and candidate for congress in New York’s 10th congressional district. Lin proposed a number of vile ways to dispose of Xiong, including tempting him with a prostitute in order to obtain leverage to blackmail him with or even staging a car accident.
Other similar incidents have been reported: Arthur Liu, father of U.S. Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu, was targeted by a spy for the Chinese government named Matthew Ziburis, who was arrested on multiple charges including conspiring to commit interstate harassment and criminal use of a means of identification. Ziburis allegedly called Mr. Liu and, claiming to be a member of an international sports committee, requested Liu’s passport number over the phone. Ziburis failed to dupe Mr. Liu. The Chinese government also arranged for a GPS tracker to be placed on Mr. Liu’s car and attempted to obtain his Social Security number.
In both cases, the targets seem to have been chosen for their expressions of anti-Communist sentiments. Xiong was a Tiananmen Square student leader when he participated in Hong Kong’s 1989 pro-democracy protests against the Chinese government. Liu is a political refugee who fled to the U.S. for his safety after protesting against the CCP following the Tiananmen Square massacre. Other critics of the Chinese government have been targeted too. Jim Li was also a demonstrator at Tiananmen Square who fled to the U.S. after being imprisoned by the Chinese government. The writhing tentacles of the CCP still found him here– he was brutally assassinated in his law office in Queens. His assailant, a young Chinese woman, reportedly draped a Chinese flag over a chair in Li’s office before stabbing him to death. The co-founder of Li’s non-profit, the Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang Memorial Foundation, has also been accused of “working secretly for at least 15 years under the direction and control of Chinese state security officers.” Shujun Wang, the aforementioned co-founder, worked as a mole within their pro-democracy non-profit foundation; some of whose members are critics of the CCP and the Chinese government. Wang used his position within the foundation to report information on “Uyghur and Tibetan activists, supporters of the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, advocates for Taiwanese independence and others.” The exact number of dissidents that have been seized as a result of Wang’s spying is unknown, but one human rights lawyer and former member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council was arrested by Chinese authorities after Wang reported information on him.
This grisly evidence of the CCP’s influence in America raises particularly serious concerns for leaders in our country who have been bold enough to denounce China’s evil practices. China’s spy network is a cause for alarm even for those who are not as large of a thorn in the CCP’s side. China’s covert use of data gathering in staging attempts on Xiong and Li’s lives highlights the dangers of having one’s information fed to the CCP through seemingly innocuous avenues, such as Tik Tok. We must all remain cautious, lest by allowing our data to be stolen by the CCP, we too fall victim to their dark designs.