DOJ charges New York-based Chinese political asylum seeker with espionage

Tang Yuanjun, a former militant of China's pro-democracy movement in asylum in the United States, was indicted Wednesday for acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government, the Justice Department reported.

Twenty years ago, Tang Yuanjun, 67, swam to an island under Taiwanese control before receiving political asylum in the United States.

Tang performed "duties with the Ministry of State Security (MSE) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), which is the main civilian intelligence agency" in the Asian country, the Justice Department said in a statement.

The exactivist provided the MSE with information on "individuals and groups considered by the PRC to be potentially adverse" to its interests, including "prominent pro-democracy activists and Chinese dissidents in the United States."

He is also accused of having lied to the FBI by claiming that he no longer had access to the email used to communicate with his handler at the Chinese Ministry of Security.

The man, originally from Jilin province in northeast China, was detained Wednesday and is due to appear before a judge shortly.

Asked by AFP in recent hours, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it was "not aware" of the case.

In China, Tang was sentenced to 20 years in prison for participating in 1989 in the pro-democracy movement in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, which was violently repressed by the government.