Operation Fox Hunt

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See also: Anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping

Operation Fox Hunt (Chinese: 猎狐专项行动) is a Chinese covert global operation whose purported aim is anti-corruption under Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping's administration. It has led to the arrest of over 40 of its 100 most wanted globally.[1][2][3] The program has been accused of targeting Chinese dissidents living abroad to stop their activism under the guise of returning corrupt Chinese nationals to China to face criminal charges.[4][5][1][2]

History[]

Operation Fox Hunt was launched in June 2014. In the course of six months during 2015 Operation Fox Hunt repatriated 680 people to China.[6]

In 2015 Operation Fox Hunt scored its first big success in Europe with the arrest and extradition of a woman surnamed Zhang from Italy. It was the first time a European country had extradited someone to China on accusations of financial crimes.[7]

In March 2017, Ningxia investigators and Paris embassy personnel “successfully persuaded” fugitive Zheng Ning to come home, after he had lived in France for three years before his mysterious disappearance. Despite an extradition treaty between France and China, French officials were not informed of the repatriation, leading French intelligence to lodge a complaint. Paul Charon, an expert on China at the French defense ministry's Institute for Strategic Research, says “It also shows a bigger phenomenon: the hardening stance of the regime in Beijing, which dares to carry out these operations overseas and mock the sovereignty of other countries.”[8]

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) publicly acknowledged to The Globe and Mail that China is using threats and intimidation against members of Canada's Chinese community that are akin to the tactics used in Operation Fox Hunt. CSIS said that “these tactics can also be used as cover for silencing dissent, pressuring political opponents and instilling a general fear of state power no matter where a person is located.”[9]

Operation Skynet[]

Announced in 2015, operation Skynet is a parallel and simultaneous program designed to augment operation Fox Hunt by restricting the financial flows of cadres which have fled overseas and by engaging in recovery of corrupt proceeds. South China Morning Post reports that programme will "go further" than previous manhunts through the coordination of multiple government agencies to cut off the exfiltration of state and corrupt assets abroad.[10]

American response[]

"Since 2014, Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping has spearheaded a program known as “Fox Hunt.” Now, China describes Fox Hunt as some kind of international anti-corruption campaign—it is not. Instead, Fox Hunt is a sweeping bid by General Secretary Xi to target Chinese nationals whom he sees as threats and who live outside China, across the world. We’re talking about political rivals, dissidents, and critics seeking to expose China’s extensive human rights violations.

Hundreds of the Fox Hunt victims that they target live right here in the United States, and many are American citizens or green card holders. The Chinese government wants to force them to return to China, and China’s tactics to accomplish that are shocking. For example, when it couldn’t locate one Fox Hunt target, the Chinese government sent an emissary to visit the target’s family here in the United States. The message they said to pass on? The target had two options: return to China promptly, or commit suicide. And what happens when Fox Hunt targets refuse to return to China? In the past, their family members both here in the United States and in China have been threatened and coerced, and those back in China have even been arrested for leverage."

Christopher A. Wray, July 2020, [3]

In 2015, the Obama administration protested the use of undercover intelligence agents as part of Operation Fox Hunt. In 2020 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Christopher A. Wray gave a speech at the Hudson Institute in New York where he talked at length about Fox Hunt and said the purpose of Fox Hunt is political repression, not anti-corruption. According to Wray, targets are given the option of returning to China or committing suicide.[11] Wray also asserted that targets of the operation were coerced into compliance through arrests of family members and friends back home in China who were used as leverage in order to exert psychological pressure against the targets.[12] Wray said “These are not the actions we would expect from a responsible nation-state. Instead, it’s more like something we’d expect from an organised criminal syndicate.”[4]

In September 2020, the FBI arrested NYPD officer Baimadajie Angwang, who had infiltrated the Tibetan community.[13]

In October 2020, five people were arrested by the FBI in relation to their participation in Operation Fox Hunt and charged with conspiring to act as illegal agents of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and conspiracy to commit interstate and international stalking.[14] An additional three people, who are believed to have absconded to China, were charged with similar offenses.[15]

In July 2021, a federal grand jury indicted nine individuals for acting and conspiring to act in the United States as illegal agents of the PRC and engaging and conspiring to engage in interstate and international stalking. Two of those nine were also charged with obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Six of the nine had previously been indicted in the October 2020 case and in a May 2021 indictment; the July 2021 indictment is superseding (taking the role of the previous indictment). The individuals are alleged to have surveilled, harassed, stalked, and coerced American residents to return to China, sometimes threatening family members if they failed to comply. The Justice Department accuses Tu Lan, a prosecutor of the Hanyang People's Procuratorate and one of the indicted, of directing the surveillance campaign and subsequent destruction of evidence to obstruct the American investigation into their activities. One of those targeted by the alleged conspirators is accused of having accepted bribes as a Chinese official.[16][17][18]

See also[]

  • Anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping
  • Chinese intelligence activity abroad
  • Chinese information operations and information warfare
  • Extraterritorial jurisdiction
  • Hong Kong national security law
  • Human rights in China
  • Ministry of Public Security (China)
  • Ministry of State Security (China)
  • Political offences in China

References[]

  1. ^ "China's "Fox Hunt" Makes Great Achievements". Huffington Post. 25 April 2017. Archived from the original on 24 February 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  2. ^ "France opens probe into missing Chinese head of Interpol". The Economic Times. 5 October 2018. Archived from the original on 8 October 2018. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  3. ^ "Operation Fox Hunt: Melbourne grandmother Zhou Shiqin prosecuted after return to China". Philip Wen. Sydney Morning Herald. 26 October 2016. Archived from the original on 8 October 2018. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  4. ^ Borger, Julian (2020-07-08). "China blackmailing dissenters in US to return home – FBI chief". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2020-07-07. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  5. ^ Rotella, Sebastian; Berg, Kirsten (July 22, 2021). "Operation Fox Hunt: How China Exports Repression Using a Network of Spies Hidden in Plain Sight". ProPublica. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
  6. ^ Gan, Nectar. "Revealed: the team behind China's Operation Fox Hunt against graft suspects hiding abroad". www.scmp.com. South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 6 March 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  7. ^ Timmons, Heather. "China's "Operation Fox Hunt" just bagged a trophy in Italy". qz.com. Quartz. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  8. ^ Berg, Sebastian Rotella,Kirsten. "Operation Fox Hunt: How China Exports Repression Using a Network of Spies Hidden in Plain Sight". ProPublica. Retrieved 2021-08-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ "CSIS warns China's Operation Fox Hunt is targeting Canada's Chinese community". Retrieved 2021-08-02.
  10. ^ "China ramps up global manhunt for corrupt officials with operation 'Skynet'". South China Morning Post. 2015-03-26. Retrieved 2021-08-01.
  11. ^ Borger, Julien (8 July 2020). "China blackmailing dissenters in US to return home – FBI chief". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 9 July 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  12. ^ "FBI chief warns of Beijing plot to compel overseas critics to return to China". ABC News. ABC Australia. 8 July 2020. Archived from the original on 8 July 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  13. ^ "'We are so divided now': How China controls thought and speech beyond its borders". TheGuardian.com. 26 October 2021.
  14. ^ Rej, Abhijnan. "8 Accused by the US of Participating in China's Operation Fox Hunt". thediplomat.com. The Diplomat. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  15. ^ Macias, Amanda (28 October 2020). "FBI arrests five in alleged 'Operation Fox Hunt' plot to stalk and pressure citizens to return to China". www.cnbc.com. CNBC. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  16. ^ "Nine Individuals Charged in Superseding Indictment with Conspiring to Act as Illegal Agents of the People's Republic of China". justic.gov. United States Department of Justice. 22 July 2021. Retrieved July 26, 2021.
  17. ^ Lynch, Sarah N. (July 23, 2021). "Chinese prosecutor charged in alleged plot to intimidate citizens to return to China". Reuters. Retrieved July 26, 2021.
  18. ^ Mangan, Dan; Macias, Amanda (July 22, 2021). "Chinese prosecutor, ex-NYPD cop charged with stalking, harassing U.S. residents on behalf of China". CNBC. Retrieved July 26, 2021.
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