BEIJING — China on Monday dismissed a warning issued by the Obama administration about Chinese government agents operating secretly in the United States and accused Washington of undermining Beijing’s crackdown on corruption, according to the state media. ADVERTISING BEIJING —
BEIJING — China on Monday dismissed a warning issued by the Obama administration about Chinese government agents operating secretly in the United States and accused Washington of undermining Beijing’s crackdown on corruption, according to the state media.
The diplomatic warning from Washington had alleged that Chinese security agents were working in the United States covertly to pressure Chinese suspected of economic crimes into returning home. That would constitute a violation of U.S. law, which requires foreign agents first to obtain permission from the attorney general.
The agents are operating covertly in the United States as part of Operation Fox Hunt, the Chinese government’s global campaign to repatriate Chinese fugitives and recover allegedly ill-gotten gains, U.S. officials said.
Responding to an article published Sunday by The New York Times, China’s official news agency Xinhua on Monday called the order for Chinese agents to leave the United States a “regrettable move” and accused the Obama administration of breaking bilateral law enforcement agreements. No mention was made of the Chinese agents illegally operating in America or of their use of threats and other forms of harassment against targets, actions that U.S. officials say they can prove.
“The Obama administration should show sincerity in anti-corruption cooperation with China and stop parochial calculations,” the Xinhua article said, claiming that “some analysts even say that the United States is reluctant to repatriate those corrupt officials for the sake of their money of course.”
China’s public refusal to halt the activities of its covert agents on U.S. soil is likely to further heighten tensions between Washington and Beijing. The two are already at odds over a range of issues, including the recent cybertheft of millions of government personnel files, which U.S. officials suspect was directed by China, and the devaluation of the Chinese currency. The warning came just weeks before President Xi Jinping of China is scheduled to arrive in Washington on a state visit.
The United States and China do not have a formal extradition agreement, largely because of U.S. concerns about the lack of due process and judicial independence under the governing Communist Party, and about the use of torture by Chinese authorities to extract confessions. But in April, the Department of Homeland Security worked out a new arrangement with China’s Ministry of Public Security, which oversees Operation Fox Hunt, to assist Beijing’s efforts to prosecute economic fugitives according to U.S. law. U.S. officials, however, say China has so far failed to provide the necessary evidence.
According to Chinese state news reports, the Ministry of Public Security has sent more than 70 teams of Fox Hunt agents abroad to “persuade” fugitives to return home voluntarily or to recapture them in cooperation with foreign law enforcement agencies. Yet Liu Dong, a director of the Fox Hunt campaign, said in a video broadcast on the official China Central Television last year that “whether or not there is an agreement in place, as long as there is information that there is a criminal suspect, we will chase them over there, we will take our work to them, anywhere.”
Chinese security agents had been trying to hunt down Ling Wancheng, a politically connected businessman who fled to the United States last year and could become one of the most damaging defectors in the history of the People’s Republic, one U.S. official said.
Neither the Public Security Ministry nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to faxed questions about the warning from Washington. Instead, the only official response came from Xinhua, which took a decidedly undiplomatic tone in a Chinese-language article published with the headline “U.S. warns China about hunting fox overseas. Are you joking?” While citing various prior bilateral law enforcement cooperation agreements as a positive gesture, the article claimed, “Chinese people can’t help asking: Is the United States’ butt seated with the corrupt officials over there or with justice here?”
