F-22Raptor
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The FBI has arrested five individuals on charges they conspired as foreign agents in an operation called “Foxhunt” to try to force Chinese immigrants who have run afoul of that country’s leadership to return to China to be punished, officials announced Wednesday.
“China is violating norms and laws left and right,” said FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, adding that the unprecedented case sends a clear message to the Chinese government that “surveilling, stalking, harassing and blackmailing our citizens and lawful permanent residents carry serious risks.”
Arrests were made in New York, New Jersey, and California, officials said.
Assistant Attorney General John Demers said China’s Operation Foxhunt sometimes targeted individuals who might have violated financial laws and were legitimate targets of law enforcement investigations. But many other targets, he said, were political “rivals, dissidents, critics” of the Chinese government. Pursuing those people with threats and coercion, sometimes directed at the relatives of those targeted, represents “a clear violation of the rule of law and international norms,” he said.
The announcement marks the latest effort by the U.S. to fight back against what it says is China’s wanton disregard of laws regarding computer hacking, surreptitious influence operations, and intellectual property theft.
Last month, the Justice Department charged five Chinese nationals in separate global hacking schemes targeting more than 100 video game firms, universities and other victims. At the time, Washington accused Beijing of tolerating such crimes because the defendants allegedly worked on behalf of the country’s spy services as well.
The Trump administration has made criticism of China a centerpiece of its foreign policy, chiefly on issues surrounding trade and competition in the global marketplace.
“No country can be respected as a global leader while paying only lip service to the rule of law and without taking steps to disrupt brazen criminal acts like these,” Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said in September when the hacking charges were announced.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...9bf01a-192c-11eb-befb-8864259bd2d8_story.html
“China is violating norms and laws left and right,” said FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, adding that the unprecedented case sends a clear message to the Chinese government that “surveilling, stalking, harassing and blackmailing our citizens and lawful permanent residents carry serious risks.”
Arrests were made in New York, New Jersey, and California, officials said.
Assistant Attorney General John Demers said China’s Operation Foxhunt sometimes targeted individuals who might have violated financial laws and were legitimate targets of law enforcement investigations. But many other targets, he said, were political “rivals, dissidents, critics” of the Chinese government. Pursuing those people with threats and coercion, sometimes directed at the relatives of those targeted, represents “a clear violation of the rule of law and international norms,” he said.
The announcement marks the latest effort by the U.S. to fight back against what it says is China’s wanton disregard of laws regarding computer hacking, surreptitious influence operations, and intellectual property theft.
Last month, the Justice Department charged five Chinese nationals in separate global hacking schemes targeting more than 100 video game firms, universities and other victims. At the time, Washington accused Beijing of tolerating such crimes because the defendants allegedly worked on behalf of the country’s spy services as well.
The Trump administration has made criticism of China a centerpiece of its foreign policy, chiefly on issues surrounding trade and competition in the global marketplace.
“No country can be respected as a global leader while paying only lip service to the rule of law and without taking steps to disrupt brazen criminal acts like these,” Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said in September when the hacking charges were announced.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...9bf01a-192c-11eb-befb-8864259bd2d8_story.html
