Beijing has claimed that the operation is part of an international anti-corruption campaign.
The United States has charged seven Chinese nationals with participating in an alleged campaign by Washington to bring a US citizen back to China. This was part of an “international extralegal return” operation that Beijing ran.
The Justice Department stated that the defendants were involved Beijing’s Operation Fox Hunt. US authorities claim this involves extra-judicial “repatriation teams” that clandestinely try to force expatriates into returning to China.
Beijing has claimed that the operation is part of an international anti-corruption campaign.
The seven individuals charged were accused of monitoring and harassing John Doe-1’s family, an “elite” Chinese national. They called him John Doe-1 in a forced repatriation scheme against him.
Breon Peace, Justice Department attorney, said that “the defendants engaged in uncoordinated and unilateral law enforcement action on U.S. territory on behalf of China’s government in an effort to force the repatriation of an American resident to China.”
“The United States will stand firm against such outrageous violations of national sovereignty, and prosecute those who act as illegal agents in foreign countries.”
Quanzhong, 55, and Guangyang, 34, were the two main defendants. Five other accused are still at large.
According to the Justice Department Quanzhong an, a New York businessman was Beijing’s key US liaison.
“Quanzhong An admitted he was acting under the Provincial Commission in order to increase his standing with the PRC,” stated the Justice Department. He also said that he met the son of the target expatriate several times to “cause John Doe-1 to return to the Philippines.”
John Doe-1 also sent a relative from China to the US in 2018, to send threats to his son, “that were intended coerce his return.”
Spanish rights group Safeguard Defenders released in January a report citing government data, which estimated that close to 10,000 Chinese nationals have been forcibly return since 2014.
Operation Fox Hunt and Operation Sky Net were two programs used to pressure the victims to return to China. The report outlines a range of non-judicial methods that included harassment, intimidation and kidnapping.
Nine people were charged by the US with conspiring and acting as unregistered Chinese agents under Operation Fox Hunt in July.
Five individuals were arrested in October after they attempted to target a Chinese resident in the US.
