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Tang Yuanjun, a pro-democracy activist who was granted asylum in the United States, pleaded guilty to gathering intelligence about dissidents for the Chinese government. Although the court sentenced him to three years in prison, he was given a suspended sentence.
The student who was granted political asylum in the United States on June 4, according to the Associated Pressdemocracy movement Tang Yuanjun admitted working on behalf of the Chinese governmentdetective The activities of Chinese pro-democracy activists in New York were monitored for five years. He was there on the 12thManhattan The federal court sentenced him to three years in prison, but it was suspended.
Tang Yuanjun, 69, has publicly criticized the Chinese Communist Party for many years. He pleaded guilty in September 2025, admitting that he failed to register as an “agent of the People’s Republic of China” with the U.S. Attorney General’s office as required; He also admitted that he was instructed by the Chinese government to conduct surveillance on other dissidents for five years.
Tang Yuanjun won people’s trust in foreign pro-democracy circles by participating in monthly protests outside the Chinese Consulate in Manhattan, and in 2002 he founded a non-profit organization in Flushing, Queens, where he lives.
Prosecutors said Tang Yuanjun provided relevant information about dozens of people to Chinese authorities from at least 2018 to 2023; He even allowed a Chinese contact to infiltrate an online group called “Friends of the China Democracy Party”, which was started by Tang Yuanjun and included 140 Chinese-American members.
Tang Yuanjun’s defense lawyer said that Tang Yuanjun was a democracy supporter, writer and activist. He was very eager to return to China to visit his ailing parents and brothers and so he established a relationship with a man who claimed to help him fulfill this wish.
Tang Yuanjun told the judge through an interpreter that he went to China to “reunite with his parents” against his political beliefs. He said: “I deeply regret what I did” and acknowledged that “my actions have caused some harm to others.”
Tang Yuanjun participated in the student-led June Fourth Movement in 1989 and was imprisoned in China for 12 years. In 2002, he fled to Taiwan, then to the United States and received political asylum. In July 2018, he became a naturalized US citizen.
After that, Tang Yuanjun began providing intelligence information to China’s Ministry of National Security, receiving approximately US$4,200 per year, and was arrested in October 2024. The move follows several U.S. investigations into China’s efforts to harass and silence dissidents abroad, what federal officials call “transnational actions.”
Summary FAQ
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He admitted that he failed to register as an “agent of the People’s Republic of China” according to regulations, and that he was instructed by the Chinese government to monitor Chinese dissidents in New York for a long time and provide relevant information to China.
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The Manhattan Federal Court sentenced him to three years in prison, but the actual sentence was probation, which meant he did not have to go to prison immediately to serve his sentence, but he still required court supervision.
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He participated in the June Fourth Movement in 1989 and was imprisoned in China for 12 years. He fled to the United States in 2002 and was granted political asylum. He became a US citizen in 2018.
