U.S. Says Chinese Tried to Obstruct Huawei Prosecution
By Sadie Gurman and Dustin Volz, Oct. 24, 2022, WSJ

WASHINGTON—Two Chinese intelligence officers tried to bribe a U.S. law-enforcement official to obtain what they believed was inside information about the U.S. criminal case against Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co., prosecutors
alleged in a case unsealed Monday.

The defendants, Guochun He and Zheng Wang, were charged in a federal criminal complaint filed in Brooklyn last week and made public on Monday. The charging papers don’t name Huawei, instead referring to an unnamed telecommunications company based in
China. People familiar with the case said it concerns Huawei.

Messrs. He and Wang are believed to reside in China and couldn’t be reached. The two are described in the complaint as Chinese intelligence officers who are conducting foreign intelligence operations against the U.S. on behalf of the Chinese government
to benefit Huawei.

Federal law-enforcement officials for years have increasingly warned of national-security threats posed by China, including human and cyber-enabled espionage, the theft of corporate intellectual property, and efforts to influence U.S. policy-making
through overt and covert means.

Messrs. He and Wang were among nearly a dozen people the Justice Department said it charged in three separate cases announced Monday involving China’s malign influence efforts.

“This was an egregious attempt by PRC intelligence officers to shield a PRC-based company from accountability and to undermine the integrity of our judicial system,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a press conference announcing the
charges. PRC stands for the People’s Republic of China.

The legal actions were announced at a delicate time in the Chinese political calendar as President Xi Jinping emerges from a congress of the Communist Party that extended his rule. The moves also come just weeks before Mr. Xi is expected to see President
Biden in Asia for what would be their first face-to-face meeting as heads of state and amid damaged bilateral relations on many fronts.

Western intelligence officials have for many years accused Huawei of being a particularly notable threat that could be weaponized by the Chinese government for cyber-espionage or potentially disruptive hacking operations.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Huawei didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Huawei and China have both repeatedly denied the earlier allegations of wrongdoing.

“In all three of these cases, and frankly in thousands of others, we found the Chinese government threatening established democratic norms and the rule of law as they work to undermine U.S. economic security and fundamental human rights, including
those of Americans,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said. China’s Communist Party “claims to stand for sovereignty and noninterference in other states of affairs but what the Chinese government actually does is interfere with sovereign governments
around the world whenever doing so suits Beijing,” he said.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-says-chinese-tried-to-obstruct-huawei-prosecution-11666633408

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)