Prosecutors said the man played a role in Beijing’s extralegal campaign called ‘Operation Fox Hunt,’ which sought to pressure expatriates to return to China.
A Chinese national has been sentenced to two years in prison for his role in Beijing’s extralegal campaign called “Operation Fox Hunt,” which sought to pressure expatriates to return to China.
Zhu Yong, 68, a Chinese retiree and lawful U.S. permanent resident, was one of three individuals indicted in 2023 on various charges related to surveilling, harassing, and stalking a former Chinese official named Xu Jin and his family living in suburban New Jersey.
Judge Pamela Chen of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York sentenced Zhu to two years of imprisonment on four counts on Jan. 15, including acting as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the attorney general and stalking, according to a court document. Zhu is scheduled to turn himself in for his prison term on April 15.
The other two co-defendants—Chinese national Zheng Congying and Michael McMahon, a retired New York Police Department sergeant turned private investigator—are scheduled to be sentenced later this winter.
Prosecutors have characterized the case as an example of communist China’s transnational repression. According to a 2024 State Department report, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is known for using physical and digital threats, intimidation, coercion by proxy, technical espionage, and unexplained disappearances to carry out repression outside its own borders.
The CCP launched “Operation Fox Hunt” in 2014. FBI Director Christopher Wray said in January 2022 that hundreds of people on U.S. soil were on China’s official Fox Hunt list, and many more were not on the official list but subject to surveillance.
Chinese authorities have accused Xu and his wife of bribery and embezzlement, according to China’s state-run media. The couple has denied the allegation, saying that Xu is being targeted due to the CCP’s internal politics. The couple left China in 2010.
The harassment against Xu included a threatening note taped to his home’s door.
“If you are willing to go back to the mainland and spend 10 years in prison, your wife and children will be alright. That’s the end of this matter!” the note read in translation.
Additionally, their daughter’s Facebook friends received disparaging messages about Xu.
Judge Chen, calling the defendants’ offenses “a threat to this country’s national security,” questioned Zhu about what was going through his mind when he agreed to help a Chinese official find Xu.
Zhu, who did not testify during his trial, told the judge that he had just been asked to assist in locating Xu and had no idea what would happen to the former Chinese official. Zhu said he had been told Xu owed money.
The judge asked Zhu, “At some point, Mr. Zhu, did you believe that your actions were going to result in some harm?”
Zhu responded, “After I was arrested, I realized that could be the case.”
On Wednesday, Zhu’s current lawyer, Benjamin Silverman, said that his client became aware that CCP officials were involved but didn’t realize how seriously Xu might be forced to return. Zhu “feels terribly about what he did,” the attorney said after court.
Zhu acted knowingly, but naively, the judge concluded.
While Zhu did not intend to cause any harm, he “really failed to appreciate the scope and the gravity of his conduct, and the real harm he has caused to these victims and to this country,” the judge said.
Before the sentence, prosecutors told the judge in a court document that sentencing Zhu would serve as a deterrent. They requested a sentence of about six years. The charges against Zhu carried a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
“The seriousness of the defendant’s offenses warrants a term of imprisonment that would deter others both from undermining national security interests by illegally acting on behalf of foreign governments on U.S. soil and from causing substantial harm to victims in the United States by stalking them and their families,” the prosecutors wrote.
“Through its just punishment of the defendant in this case, the Court can send an appropriate message that such conduct is grave and those engaging in such activities will receive serious punishment.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.