A Chinese American academic was found guilty of charges in the United States for using his status as a pro-democracy advocate to collect information on dissidents and share it with the Chinese government. Shujun Wang, a co-founder of a pro-democracy organization in New York, led a double life at the request of China’s Ministry of State Security, according to prosecutors. Wang, who initially denied the allegations, was convicted by a federal jury in New York on counts such as conspiring to act as a foreign agent without informing the attorney general.
Wang, who had moved to New York in 1994 and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen, played a role in establishing the Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang Memorial Foundation in Queens. Prosecutors revealed that Wang crafted emails resembling diaries detailing conversations, meetings, and activities of critics of the Chinese government. Wang would store these emails as drafts, accessible to Chinese intelligence officers through a shared password, instead of sending them electronically.
During FBI interviews from 2017 to 2021, Wang initially denied any ties to the Ministry of State Security but eventually admitted on video that he was tasked with gathering information on pro-democracy figures, although he claimed the information shared was already in the public domain. Wang’s defense team depicted him as a sociable academic with no malicious intentions, aiming to downplay his actions.
One undercover agent testified that Wang was forthcoming and conversational when approached in 2021 under the guise of affiliating with the Chinese security ministry. Wang explained that his diaries were promotional materials for the foundation and suggested to the agent that publishing them would deflect any suspicion from U.S. authorities. When informed in 2019 about an impending search of his phone for Chinese government contacts, Wang apparently showed indifference, telling investigators to proceed as they wished.
