A 25-year-old Chinese music student in Boston has been arrested and charged with stalking over alleged threats to a woman who posted fliers calling for democracy in China.
The announcement of the arrest of Xiaolei Wu by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Massachusetts comes at a time of rising concern for U.S. authorities over Beijing's reach into the country to harass and intimidate opponents of China's ruling Communist Party, as reported by Newsweek in a recent investigation.
Wu targeted someone who had posted a flier around the campus of the Berklee College of Music in Boston that read "Stand with Chinese People", "We Want Freedom," and "We Want Democracy", the U.S. Attorney's office said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Post more, I will chop your b****** hands off," was among the threats Wu had allegedly sent to the person, according to the charging documents.
He had told the victim that he had informed the public security agency in China about the victim's actions and that it would "greet" the family back home.
He had also tried to find out where the victim was living and had shared her email address to encourage online abuse, the statement said.
"We believe Mr. Wu stalked, harassed, and reported the victim's support for democracy to law enforcement in the People's Republic of China so it would launch an investigation into the victim and her family. This alleged conduct is incredibly disturbing and goes completely against our country's democratic values," Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division, was quoted as saying.
"This case also highlight's the FBI's ongoing commitment to protecting the exercise of free speech for all citizens and our efforts to bring to justice anyone who tries to infringe on those rights," he said.
Newsweek was unable to reach either Wu or his lawyer for comment. The Chinese embassy in the United States did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The alleged victim was not named in the statement. Newsweek knows her identity, but she declined to give her name or to comment.
Newsweek has reported on increased activity within the United States by alleged agents of China's Communist Party to target those – including U.S. citizens - who speak out against the party or ruler Xi Jinping.
Suspected Communist Party agents have been involved at a series of incidents at recent protests in the United States in solidarity with unprecedented demonstrations in China against Beijing's COVID policies, but the Chinese operational network in the United States is very much wider.
Newsweek identified nine confirmed or suspected Chinese proxy police stations and courts in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
It also found a further 10 "Chinese Support Centers" that are part of the United Front—the Communist Party's domestic and international influence apparatus—that offer unspecified support to overseas Chinese.
They are in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Houston, St. Louis, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey and the Carolinas.
In total, it counted at least 627 groups linked to CCP influence operations in the United States, many connected with so-called "hometown associations," "friendship associations," or chambers of commerce based on a shared place of origin in China.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has voiced concern at reports of Chinese overseas "police stations" in the United States. U.S. law enforcement agencies have recently pursued some high profile cases linked to alleged harassment or intimidation of opponents of the CCP.
In March, the Department of Justice announced it had arrested two men in New York for conspiring to act as agents of the Chinese government to harass Chen Weiming, an artist living outside Los Angeles who was the target of alleged plot after he made a sculpture of Xi as a COVID-19 virus.
The DoJ announced more cases related to China in October against a total of 13 people. Seven of them were charged with trying to use threats and intimidation to force the repatriation of a Chinese citizen living in the United States.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
