Chinese spy duo charged in Huawei case

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Chinese spy duo charged in Huawei case as US condemns ‘egregious’ interference

Pair allegedly tried to bribe top US official as attorney general says DoJ ‘will not tolerate attempts to undermine the rule of law’

Two Chinese intelligence officers tried to bribe a US law enforcement official as part of an effort to obtain inside information about a criminal case against the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment unsealed on Monday.

Garland said that the cases showed that China “sought to interfere with the rights and freedoms of individuals in the United States and to undermine our judicial system that protects those rights.
“The justice department will not tolerate attempts by any foreign power to undermine the rule of law upon which our democracy is based,” he said.

Chinese intelligence officers Guochun He and Zheng Wang attempted to orchestrate a scheme to steal the prosecution strategy memo, witness lists, and other confidential evidence from the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of New York, the indictment said.

According to the indictment unsealed in Brooklyn, the Chinese agents paid about $61,000 worth of bitcoin in bribes to a US government official whom they believed had been recruited to work for the Chinese government but in fact worked as a double agent for the FBI.

US law enforcement officials have long warned about national security threats posed by China, including through human and cyber espionage, as part of increasingly brazen attempts to steal corporate intellectual property, trade secrets and influence US policy.

“The cases unsealed today take place against a backdrop of malign activity by the People’s Republic of China that includes espionage, harassment, obstruction of our justice system and unceasing efforts to steal US technology,” deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco said.