A Boston resident allegedly worked with Chinese government officials over about four years to keep tabs on Chinese activists and dissidents in the area who were calling for pro-democracy reforms in the communist nation, federal prosecutors said on Friday.
Liang Litang (梁利堂), 63, a US citizen who lives in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood, was charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government and acting as an agent of a foreign government without notice to the US attorney general, the US attorney’s office in Boston said.
Liang, who was arrested Tuesday, was released on Thursday on US$25,000 bail with electronic monitoring after pleading not guilty, court documents showed.
Photo: EPA-EFE
He also surrendered his passport and was ordered not to leave Massachusetts or have any contact with government officials from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Liang was accused of “providing the PRC government with information on Boston-area individuals and organizations; organizing a counterprotest in the United States against pro-democracy dissidents; providing photographs of and information about US-based dissidents to PRC government officials; and providing the names of potential recruits to the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security,” one of the documents said.
The goal was to “covertly advance the PRC government’s goals and agenda within the United States,” indictment said.
China has been accused in other cases of trying to interfere with democracy advocates in the US who are critical of Beijing.
Last month, two men were accused by US authorities of helping establish a secret police station in New York on behalf of the Chinese government, and about three dozen Chinese People’s Armed Police Force officers were charged with using social media to harass US-based dissidents.
Liang’s cooperation with the Chinese government allegedly started in 2018 and lasted until at least last year, prosecutors said.
In one case, Liang allegedly sent a Chinese government official pictures and video footage of a student activist he believed was responsible for destroying Chinese flags during a 2018 protest in Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood, they said.
Liang allegedly organized an event in Boston in 2018 that was attended by at least two Chinese government officials, one of whom allegedly asked Liang for the name of a person who attended and worked for an elected Boston official.
Liang allegedly provided the name as requested, authorities said.
Court documents did not name the elected official.
Liang allegedly provided video footage of a dissident attending the “Boston Stands with Hong Kong” march in August 2019 and the following month sent photographs of dissidents in front of the Boston Public Library to a Chinese government official, calling them a “bunch of clowns trying to cause trouble,” prosecutors said.
Liang allegedly had contacts with senior Chinese diplomats in the US, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and the Chinese United Front Work Department, which reports directly to the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party to further the party’s objectives, prosecutors said.
He allegedly visited China in September last year, where he attended events to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the PRC.
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