Chinese dissident who led pro-democracy group in NYC pleads guilty to spying for Beijing

A member of New York’s Chinese dissident community pleaded guilty Tuesday to spying on his fellow activists on behalf of the Chinese government.  Yuanjun Tang, 68, had long been an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party, joining monthly protests outside the country’s Manhattan consulate and founding a pro-democracy nonprofit in Flushing, Queens, where he has lived since 2002.

But as he publicly advocated against his homeland’s government, Tang was quietly acting on orders from Beijing’s intelligence service to collect information on his fellow Chinese American activists, according to a guilty plea entered Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors, who brought charges against Tang last August, believe he accepted the tasks in order to gain approval to visit family members in China. An emailed inquiry to his attorney was not returned.

Read more