Scholar spared jail in US case alleging China spies on dissidents overseas | EUROtoday

A Chinese American scholar convicted of spying on Chinese dissidents was spared jail time Monday by a U.S. decide.

Shujun Wang was sentenced by U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin to time served and three years’ supervised launch, in keeping with attorneys. Wang has been free on bail because the day of his arrest.

Wang, 76, was convicted final summer time of prices together with conspiring to behave as an unlawful overseas agent.

With a narrative that federal prosecutors have described as akin to a spy novel, the case is a part of their portfolio on what Washington views as ” transnational repression ” by authoritarian governments focusing on critics overseas. The Chinese authorities has stated it is being slandered by the “malicious fabrication of the so-called ‘transnational suppression’ narrative.”

A Chinese-born American citizen, Wang was a history professor in his homeland. He became a visiting fellow at Columbia University for a time in the 1990s and emigrated to the U.S., where he wrote books and co-founded a pro-democracy group in New York City.

Prosecutors portrayed Wang’s advocacy as a facade that garnered him credibility with sincere activists, allowing him to gather information on Hong Kong democracy protesters, supporters of Taiwanese independence, Uyghur and Tibetan activists and others.

He relayed the intel to China’s main intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, in the form of emails styled as “diaries,” according to prosecutors and trial evidence. The messages concerned demonstrations planned during Chinese President Xi Jinping’ s visits to the U.S., anniversary events for the 1989 protests and bloody crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, and more.

Wang also met with ministry officials on trips to China, according to prosecutors and evidence.

One activist and fellow academic mentioned in the “diaries,” Ming Xia, advised the court docket in a letter that he’d altered his every day routine consequently. Another activist, Anna Yeung-Cheung, wrote that Wang’s “betrayal not only damaged personal bonds and shattered our collective trust but also exacerbated harmful stereotypes that depict Chinese and Asian Americans as potential spies.”

Another determine within the “diaries” — Juntao Wang, an educational and dissident who spent years in jail in China — stated he knew about Shujun Wang’s Chinese Communist Party connections however nonetheless appreciated his work with the pro-democracy motion.

“From the perspective of traditional Chinese political culture and contemporary Chinese politics, his dual identity is a common and understandable phenomenon,” he wrote to the court docket. Saying that some real supporters of democracy additionally take care of Chinese officers to achieve some advantages, he requested for a brief sentence for Shujun Wang.

Shujun Wang advised FBI brokers in interviews that his communiqués had been simply accounts of publicly obtainable tidbits.

In a New York Times Magazine interview after his conviction, he at occasions referred to as the diaries a passion and stated he hadn’t recognized his contacts in China labored for the safety company. At different factors, he acknowledged sharing data with Chinese officers and stated he was simply making an attempt to advertise democracy to the Communist authorities, in keeping with the journal.

Wang’s lawyer, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, referred to as Judge Chin’s sentence a “wise” resolution.

“It appropriately recognized that his conduct was not driven by any financial motive and did limited, if any harm,” stated Margulis-Ohnuma, who additionally famous that Wang has a number of well being issues.

In court docket papers, Margulis-Ohnuma stated the case did not depict a debonair spy however quite “an aging democracy activist — lonesome and starved for attention, eager to please and always delighted to engage — who occasionally provided mostly-useless information to the Chinese government and lied about it as he became older, more impaired and more isolated.”

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Hill reported from Albany, New York.