Officials at the US Department of Justice detailed charges against two alleged agents of the Chinese government on Monday at a press conference seemingly confirming reports that the target of the operation was the US effort to prosecute Huawei.
Attorney general Merrick Garland and his associates did not mention Huawei directly, but confirmed other details of reporting from NBC News and other outlets at their press briefing Monday afternoon.
According to the Department of Justice (DoJ), the efforts of the supposed Chinese agents were uncovered and undone due to the help of a double agent working for US law enforcement who supplied his handlers with documents produced by the US government to mislead them.
“The defendants believed they had recruited the US employee as an asset. But in fact, the individual they recruited was a double agent, working on behalf of the FBI,” said Mr Garland.
FBI director Christopher Wray accused the Chinese government at the briefing of attempting to “undermine US economic security and fundamental human rights, including those of Americans” and vowed that the FBI would continue working to counter the “aggression” of Beijing.
“We also see a coordinated effort across the Chinese government to lie, cheat, and steal their way into unfairly dominating entire technology sectors,” he continued.
Huawei currently faces a Rico indictment accusing it of stealing US technology from companies with the purpose of achieving dominance in the 5G field. A top executive also faced criminal charges in 2021.
It’s unclear if any arrests have been made or will be made in the future in regards to the Huawei spying case, but separately on Monday the DoJ announced the arrest of two persons accused of working on behalf of China to intimidate a US resident into returning to China against their will.
“As these cases demonstrate, the government of China sought to interfere with the rights and freedoms of individuals in the United States and to undermine our judicial system that protects those rights,” said the attorney general. “They did not succeed.”
