United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, and the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), Christopher G. Raia, announced today that YUANJUN TANG, a naturalized citizen of the United States and resident of Flushing, Queens, pled guilty to conspiring to act in the United States as an unregistered agent of the People's Republic of China ("PRC") before U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl. TANG will be sentenced on January 29, 2026.

"For years, Yuanjun Tang abused the trust he had gained among pro-democracy activists in New York City and around the United States by secretly accepting tasks from Chinese intelligence officers and reporting on persons of interest to the PRC and events conducted in support of democracy," said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. "Tang's covert operations violated our nation's sovereignty and threatened the security of New Yorkers exercising their fundamental rights to free speech and free association. Tang's plea today illustrates our profound commitment to protecting American ideals from malign foreign influence."

"Today, Yuanjun Tang admitted that, for years, he willingly acted on orders of the Chinese government to report on the constitutionally protected activities of US-based Chinese dissidents," said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher G. Raia. "Tang's betrayal of the ideals of the US to help the Chinese government repress pro-democracy activists goes against the very values he claimed to promote. The FBI will continue to defend the freedoms enshrined in our Constitution and bring to justice anyone willing to break the law by illegally acting on behalf of a hostile foreign nation."

As alleged in public court filings, statements at public court proceedings, and the charging documents in the case:

TANG is a former PRC citizen who was imprisoned in the PRC for his activities as a dissident opposing the one-party authoritarian political system controlled by the Chinese Communist Party ("CCP"), the PRC's sole ruling party, including during the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations. In 2002, TANG defected to Taiwan, and he was subsequently granted political asylum in the U.S. He has since resided continuously in New York City, where he has regularly participated in events with fellow PRC dissidents and leads a nonprofit dedicated to promoting democracy in China.

Between at least 2018 and June 2023, TANG acted in the U.S. as an agent of the PRC by gathering information and completing tasks at the direction of the PRC's Ministry of State Security ("MSS"), which is the PRC's principal civilian intelligence agency. The MSS is responsible for, among other things, the PRC's foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, espionage, and political security functions.

Specifically, TANG regularly received instructions from and reported to an MSS intelligence officer regarding individuals and groups viewed by the PRC as potentially adverse to the PRC's interests, including prominent U.S.-based Chinese democracy activists and dissidents. This included providing the MSS information about specific individuals identified by the MSS as persons of interest, as well as naming, photographing, and recording individuals participating in pro-democracy activities in the U.S. TANG provided the MSS a range of additional information, such as contact information belonging to immigration lawyers based in New York City and details about the process for gaining political asylum in the U.S.

TANG accepted monetary payments for his work and traveled at least three times to Macau and mainland China for face-to-face meetings with MSS intelligence officers, during which he submitted to polygraphs and questioning. During one of these meetings, he allowed the MSS to install an application on one of his cellphones to facilitate the instantaneous transmission of photographs and other information from his phone to the MSS and accepted a laptop for use in communicating with the MSS.

TANG used a large number of electronic devices and online services to collect or transmit information on behalf of the MSS. Law enforcement agents recovered specific instructions TANG received from the MSS, including via encrypted methods, as well as photographs, videos, and documents that TANG collected or created for transmission to the MSS. TANG not only provided the MSS information about specific individuals and events but also helped the MSS infiltrate a group chat on an encrypted messaging application used by numerous U.S.-based PRC dissidents and pro-democracy activists to communicate about pro-democracy issues and express criticism of the PRC government.

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TANG, 68, of Flushing, Queens, pled guilty to one count of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The maximum potential sentence in this case is prescribed by Congress and provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by a judge.

Mr. Clayton praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI and its New York Field Office, Counterintelligence Division, and thanked the Department of Justice's National Security Division, Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, for its assistance.

This case is being handled by the Office's National Security and International Narcotics Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Yumi Chong is in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Trial Attorney Sean O'Dowd of the National Security Division's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.