By Charles “Sam” Faddis | AND Magazine | August 6, 2021
Multiple news outlets have covered the case of Juan Tang, a former University of California Davis researcher who had been charged with visa fraud for lying about her military service in China. All charges have been dropped against Tang, and she has been allowed to return to mainland China.
Tang’s defense counsel have defended her as someone who misunderstood the visa forms, she was filling out and was unfairly prosecuted for innocent mistakes. This is untrue. Tang was a spy, and she was here to steal sensitive American technology and secrets and provide them to Beijing.
In fact, Tang is only one of five Chinese spies against whom the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently dropped charges. Prosecutors dismissed all charges against these individuals, Juan Tang, Chen Song, Kaikai Zhao, Qing Wang, and Guan Lei despite the overwhelming evidence that they were all sent here to spy for China.
As reported by Breitbart News, the criminal complaints filed by prosecutors detailed the evidence against the five clearly:
- Wang entered the U.S. in March 2019 after securing a J-1 visa in December 2018 to take a scientific research job at the University of California, San Francisco. To obtain his visa, Wang claimed to have been an associate professor in medicine in the PLA from 2002 to 2016. In actuality, prosecutors said Wang was still employed by the PLA while studying in the U.S. and was the equivalent of a major.
- Tang entered the U.S. in December 2019 after securing a J-1 visa in November 2019 to work as a researcher at the University of California at Davis. To obtain her visa, Tang denied ever having been employed by the PLA. Prosecutors, though, discovered Tang was an officer of the PLA Air Force and even found a photo of Tang in her PLA uniform.
- Song first entered the U.S. in December 2018 after securing a J-1 visa in November 2018 to work at Stanford University as a brain disease researcher. In her visa application, Song stated that she worked for the PLA from September 2010 to June 2011. Song, prosecutors said, Song was a member of the PLA when she entered the U.S. and alleged that a search of her external hard drive found that she was collecting “important information” from her Stanford University job.
- Zhao first entered the U.S. sometime after applying for an F-1 student visa in June 2018 to take a doctoral spot at Indiana University. To obtain his visa, Zhao said he had never been employed by the PLA. In reality, prosecutors said, Zhao served in the PLA’s research and education institution and attended the PLA’s Air Force academy. Zhao was also found in a photograph wearing his PLA uniform.
- Lei first entered the U.S. sometime in 2018 after securing a J-1 visa to work as a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. Prosecutors allege that in July 2020, Lei threw a damaged hard drive into a dumpster near his residence after refusing to allow the FBI to review the hard drive. Lei was accused of giving U.S. software or technical data to China’s National University of Defense Technology and lying about his affiliation with the PLA.
Under the Trump administration, the DOJ was energized to crack down on Chinese spying in the United States and the theft of our most sensitive secrets. Dozens of Chinese spies in our top research institutions were arrested. All that is over now. Biden knows what Beijing wants. He has directed the FBI and DOJ to back off.
This is only one piece of Biden’s offensive on behalf of his Chinese masters. All across the board, he is rolling back measures Trump put in place and giving Chinese intelligence a free hand.
In September 2020 Trump moved to crack down on misuse of cultural exchange and student visas by Chinese spies. At issue was the practice of Chinese operatives simply indefinitely extending their stays here under such visas to allow them to continue to steal American secrets. Trump proposed new rules, which included in-person interviews with visa holders. The goal was to determine who was here on legitimate business and who was conducting espionage.
This was a reasonable rule designed to prevent abuse of the visa system by hostile intelligence officers. It would have dramatically changed the operating environment for Chinese spies. For that reason, it had to go. Biden killed the new rule almost as soon as he sat down in the Oval Office.
That was not the only proposed new rule Biden killed. President Trump had also announced a proposed policy requiring U.S. schools to disclose their “Confucius Institute” partnerships. “Confucius Institutes” operate on U.S. college campuses. They ostensibly teach Chinese culture and language. In fact, they are part of a worldwide Chinese Communist Party program to spread propaganda and coopt foreign elites. Their presence has been widely criticized for years, and Trump was finally taking aim at them and cracking down on their activities.
Secretary of State Pompeo called “Confucius Institutes” foreign missions. He also described the purpose of the institutes as “advancing Beijing’s global propaganda and malign influence campaign on U.S. campuses and K-12 classrooms.”
On January 26, 2021, only days after his inauguration, Joe Biden quietly rescinded Trump’s proposed new policy. The Confucius Institutes were given a pass to press ahead with the work of supporting Beijing’s interests and undermining the national security of the United States.
Biden has also rescinded Trump-era executive orders meant to ban TikTok and other Chinese-owned apps. All of these applications are part of a worldwide Chinese effort to control the actions of Chinese citizens, ethnic Chinese abroad, and to spy on Americans. The companies running these apps cooperate fully with the Chinese Communist government and do the bidding of the CCP.
Abigail Jackson 🇺🇸 on Twitter: “When campaigning for President, Joe Biden said the LITERAL OPPOSITE: “China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man… they’re not bad folks, folks… They’re not competition for us.” pic.twitter.com/SzXYl0l5eE https://t.co/FSlyFYu9yO / Twitter”
When campaigning for President, Joe Biden said the LITERAL OPPOSITE: “China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man… they’re not bad folks, folks… They’re not competition for us.” pic.twitter.com/SzXYl0l5eE https://t.co/FSlyFYu9yO
All of this is still only the beginning. Chinese intelligence has run amok in the United States for decades. The theft of our most sensitive secrets has brought us to the point where we may well lose a war with Beijing. For one brief moment, Donald Trump appeared poised to change that fundamentally. We could see the day when the Chinese espionage activities on our soil were brought under control.
No more. Xi’s man is in the White House surrounded by a host of senior officials who are all bought and paid for by the CCP. Beijing Biden has written Chinese intelligence a blank check, and we will all pay the price.
