U.S. Citizen Pleads Guilty For Conspiring To Become Agent for China
A 68-year-old naturalized American citizen has admitted to operating as an undercover agent for the Chinese Communist Party’s intelligence services, the Justice Department revealed Tuesday.
According to federal prosecutors, Yuanjun Tang — once a dissident who stood against the CCP’s brutal one-party regime during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests — turned from critic to collaborator, secretly working with Beijing’s Ministry of State Security (MSS).
Tang, who defected to Taiwan in 2002 before being granted asylum in the United States, built a new life in New York City. There, he mingled with Chinese pro-democracy activists and even led a nonprofit supposedly dedicated to advancing democracy in China. All the while, prosecutors say, he was feeding critical intelligence back to Beijing.
From 2018 until June 2023, Tang allegedly carried out assignments for the MSS, including spying on Chinese dissidents living in the U.S., photographing them at pro-democracy events, collecting personal details, and even helping Beijing infiltrate an encrypted messaging group where exiled dissidents criticized the regime.
Court filings show Tang was directed by MSS handlers, paid for his work, and traveled multiple times to China and Macau for in-person briefings. During those trips, he reportedly underwent polygraph testing, allowed spyware to be installed on his phone, and accepted a laptop provided by Chinese intelligence to streamline his espionage activities.
The FBI recovered encrypted instructions from Beijing’s operatives, along with photos, videos, and documents Tang compiled for his handlers.
Tang pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent, a felony carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He will be sentenced on January 29, 2026, by a federal district judge who will weigh sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
The FBI’s New York field office led the investigation, according to DOJ officials.
This latest case underscores growing concerns about Beijing’s infiltration attempts inside the United States — a threat President Donald J. Trump has repeatedly warned about as he works to dismantle the Chinese Communist Party’s global espionage network.
Just last month, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth highlighted China’s broader strategy of global expansion, warning that the CCP has set its sights on controlling the Panama Canal.
“The communist Chinese want to control politicians,” Hegseth said on Fox News. “They’re building infrastructure projects. They want to surveil. They want to take that canal. President Trump says, ‘Not on our watch,’ and we’re fighting back.”
Hegseth emphasized that America had been “asleep at the wheel” for too long, but credited President Trump with pushing Panama to withdraw from China’s Belt and Road Initiative and forging a new joint declaration ensuring U.S. warships will move “first and free” through the canal. He also pointed to Trump’s ongoing diplomatic efforts with Iran as proof of America’s restored leadership on the world stage.
This prosecution of a Chinese spy operating under the cover of American citizenship is just the latest reminder: under President Trump’s leadership, the United States is finally taking the CCP threat seriously.