Man gets 2 years in US prison for aiding pushy effort to get ex-official to return to China

NEW YORK– A man convicted in the first trial that highlighted U.S. claims that China is harassing its critics abroad was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison for his role in a grisly crime. campaign to return a former official to his homeland.

Zhu Yong, a Chinese retiree likely to be deported from the US after his prison sentence, expressed regret and suggested he had not initially thought about the implications of what he did.

“I also beg forgiveness from the nation, the victims and every American citizen,” he told the court through an interpreter in Mandarin. He begged a judge for “a chance to renew myself” and to see his grandchild grow up in the US

Zhu, 68, was one of three men found guilty of several charges in a 2023 trial that depicted cross-border surveillance and stalking in suburban New Jersey.

The target, a former Chinese city official named Xu Jin, was subjected to subtle and overt pressure to return to China, where he and his wife have been accused of bribery, according to testimony. They deny the accusation and say he was targeted because of internal politics within the Chinese communist government.

Their adult daughter’s Facebook friends received disparaging messages about him. Xu’s octogenarian father was abruptly flown from China to the US to beg him to return. Finally one ominous note was taped to the man’s door in New Jersey.

“If you are willing to go back to the mainland and spend ten years in prison,” the message read in translation, “your wife and children will be fine. That is the end of this matter!”

Zhu, also known as Jason Zhu and Yong Zhu, was convicted of charges including stalking and acting as an illegal foreign agent. The charges carried a prison sentence of up to 25 years; Prosecutors had asked for a prison sentence of about six years.

U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen called the crimes “a threat to the national security of this country” and questioned Zhu about what he was thinking when he agreed to help a Chinese government figure find Xu. Xu, a former official in the city of Wuhan, had left China. with his wife in 2010.

Zhu – who did not testify at his trial – told the judge that he had only been asked to help locate Xu and that he did not know what awaited the ex-official. The defendant said he was told that Xu owed money.

“Did you at any point, Mr. Zhu, think that your actions would lead to any harm?” the judge asked.

“After I was arrested, I realized this could be the case,” he said.

Prosecutors call the case an example of that transnational repressionor governments that attempt to intimidate, silence, or even attack dissenters beyond their borders. Several US prosecutions focused on China’s ‘Operation Fox Hunt’ almost ten year old initiative that Beijing characterizes as pursuing fugitives abroad, including officials accused of corruption.

The US and China do not have an extradition treaty, meaning Beijing cannot legally force people back for prosecution. The Chinese government has denied threatening people to get them back.

Zhu and co-defendants Michael McMahon and Zheng Congying did not dispute that they took different actions in the case. Zhu helped hire and brief McMahon, a retired US police sergeant turned private investigator, on finding their prey.

During the trial, lawyers said the men believed they were working for private individuals or a company, and not for Chinese authorities. The attorneys said the three were told they were helping to collect a debt or carry out another matter.

Zhu’s current lawyer said Wednesday that his client came to understand that Chinese government officials were involved but did not understand how seriously Xu might be pressured to return.

The judge concluded that Zhu acted knowingly, but naively.

He “really failed to appreciate the extent and severity of his conduct, and the real harm he caused to these victims and to this country,” she said.

Zhu is scheduled to stand trial for his prison term on April 15. McMahon and Zheng will be sentenced later this winter.

Eight other people have also been charged in the alleged conspiracy. Three have pleaded guilty. Five others are believed to be in China.