A Chinese researcher who lied about her affiliation with a military university entered Beijing’s consulate in San Francisco after being interviewed by the FBI on about alleged visa fraud and has remained there, a media report said.
According to documents filed on July 20 in the San Francisco division of the US district court for the Northern District of California, Tang Juan came to America on a J-1 visa and was a researcher at the University of California, Davis, the Axios news website report said on Thursday.
On her visa application, Tang stated that she did not have any affiliation with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), but an investigation revealed that she worked at the Air Force Military Medical University (FMMU), a PLA-affiliated university in China, and she is considered to be active military personnel, Axios quoted the documents as saying.
After obtaining a warrant, the FBI searched her home and found evidence of her affiliation with the PLA.
On June 26, Tang was charged with visa fraud.
Federal prosecutors wrote that “at some point following the search and interview of Tang on June 20, she went to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, where the FBI assesses she has remained”, according to the court filings.
Neither China nor the US State Department has commented on the report.
This development comes after US President Donald Trump’s administration ordered the closure of China’s mission in Houston, saying it was involved in stealing intellectual property, the BBC reported.
The administration gave China 72 hours to close the consulate “to protect American intellectual property and Americans’ private information”.
The consulate is one of five in the US, not counting the embassy in Washington.
The Chinese government called the move a “political provocation”.
In recent months his administration has clashed repeatedly with Beijing over trade, the coronavirus pandemic and China’s imposition of a controversial new security law on Hong Kong, the BBC report added.
Describing it as “unprecedented escalation”, China’s foreign ministry said the move was unilaterally initiated by the US and Beijing would “react with firm countermeasures” if the “erroneous decision” was not revoked.
As per the New York Post, Houston police had received reports that Chinese officials were burning documents at the Consulate on Tuesday evening. A news reporter’s video showed several people surrounding multiple trash cans with documents on fire, in the consulate’s courtyard.
Houston firefighters and police, the New York Post said, responded to the fire at the Consulate General office but did not have the authority to access the building.
However, China alleged that the US security harassed its diplomatic staff and students and confiscated personal electrical devices and detained them without any reason.
“China strongly condemns such an outrageous and unjustified move which will sabotage China-US relations. We urge the US to immediately withdraw its erroneous decision. Otherwise, China will make legitimate and necessary reactions,” the foreign ministry said.
The relationship between the US and China has been on a downward spiral ever since the Trump administration renegotiated new terms for bilateral trade with the Xi Jinping government.
