A Chinese researcher accused of concealing her ties to the Chinese military on a visa application she submitted so that she could work in the US was on Friday booked into a northern California jail and is expected to appear in federal court tomorrow.
Sacramento County jail records show that Tang Juan (唐娟), 37, was being held on behalf of federal authorities after she was arrested by the US Marshals Service. It was unclear if she had an attorney who could comment on her behalf.
The US Department of Justice on Thursday announced charges against Tang and three other scientists living in the US, saying that they lied about their status as members of China’s People’s Liberation Army. All were charged with visa fraud.
Photo: AP
Tang was the last of the four to be arrested, after the department accused the Chinese consulate in San Francisco of harboring a known fugitive. The consulate did not immediately respond to e-mail and Facebook messages seeking comment, and it was not possible to leave a telephone message.
The department said that Tang lied about her military ties in a visa application in October last year as she made plans to work at the University of California, Davis, and again during an FBI interview months later.
Agents found photographs of Tang dressed in military uniform and reviewed articles in China identifying her military affiliation.
The university said that Tang left her job as a visiting researcher in the Department of Radiation Oncology last month.
Her work was funded by a study-based exchange program affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education, the university said in a statement.
Agents have said they believe that Tang sought refuge at the consulate after they interviewed her at her home in Davis on June 20.
The FBI has been interviewing visa holders in more than 25 US cities suspected of hiding their ties to the Chinese military.
The allegations came as US-China relations continued to deteriorate, particularly over allegations of Chinese theft of US intellectual property.
China’s consulate in Houston was shut down on Friday on order of US authorities after Washington accused Chinese agents of trying to steal medical and other research in Texas.
“We can confirm that the PRC Consulate General in Houston is closed,” a US Department of State spokesperson said.
The spokesperson spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
China on Friday ordered the US to close its consulate in the city of Chengdu.
Additional reporting by AFP
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS