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Yujing Zhang, the Chinese businesswoman who was arrested in April at President Donald J. Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort with a cache of suspicious electronics, was convicted on charges of trespassing and lying to federal agents.
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Elaine Chao Investigated by House Panel for Possible Conflicts
By Eric Lipton and Michael Forsythe
6-8 minutes
Politics|Elaine Chao Investigated by House Panel for Possible Conflicts
Image
Actions by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao have led House investigators to question if she is using her office to try to benefit her family’s financial interests.CreditCreditSarah Silbiger/The New York Times
The request by the committee in the Democratic-controlled House relates to actions Ms. Chao has taken that potentially benefited Foremost Group, a New York-based shipping company owned by her family. Foremost has received hundreds of millions of dollars in loan commitments from a bank run by the Chinese government to help build ships that Foremost has purchased from government-owned shipyards there.
The actions by Ms. Chao — including joint public appearances since she became transportation secretary in 2017 with her father, James Chao, who founded the company, and a planned trip to China to meet with government officials there along with her father — have led House investigators to question if she is using her office to try to benefit her family’s financial interests.
“Federal regulations prohibit federal employees from using their public offices for the ‘private gain’” of friends or relatives, said the letter sent on Monday to Ms. Chao by the House investigators, who cited articles that appeared in The New York Times in June and Politico in 2018 that detailed continued ties between Ms. Chao and her family’s company. “Several reports indicate that you have used your official position to benefit Foremost Group, a shipping company owned by your father and sisters that is headquartered in New York and operates a fleet that transports materials to and from China.”
The Times investigation found numerous instances in which Ms. Chao, as transportation secretary, may have boosted Foremost’s image. In addition to inviting her father to the department in 2017, she also appeared at a signing ceremony that August at the Harvard Club in New York involving Foremost and the Sumitomo Group, a Japanese company with mass transit projects in the United States that fell under her oversight.
The letter to Ms. Chao cites moves by the department to cut specific grant programs intended to help support the United States maritime industry. They include cuts proposed, but rejected by Congress, in 2017 and 2018 for the Maritime Security Program, which subsidizes American-flagged cargo ships so they are available, when necessary, to help the Pentagon move supplies to war zones. Cutting those grants could have undermined the American maritime industry at the same time her family’s company was receiving support from the Chinese maritime industry.
The committee also asked Ms. Chao about her failure in 2018 to sell off her holdings in Vulcan Materials Company, a manufacturer of road construction materials, despite a promise to do so in an ethics agreement that Ms. Chao signed in early 2017 before her confirmation as transportation secretary.
The letter is signed by Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, the committee’s chairman, and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, Democrat of Illinois, who is the chairman of the panel’s economic and consumer policy subcommittee.
The Transportation Department, in a statement on Monday, said it intended to respond to the request from House investigators, but suggested that the allegations of any conflict of interest were unjustified.
The agency also pointed out that while it did advocate cuts to certain maritime grant programs, overall it has increased maritime spending, particularly on ships used by maritime academies.
“We look forward to responding to the committee’s request,” the statement said. “Media attacks targeting the secretary’s family are stale and only attempt to undermine her long career of public service.”
The agency has also said that Ms. Chao’s failure to sell the Vulcan stock was an oversight that occurred when the company paid her out on stock options she earned while serving on the Vulcan board by issuing her shares of stock in the company instead of paying her cash. Ms. Chao subsequently sold the Vulcan stock, after it was reported, at first by The Wall Street Journal, that she still had financial ties to the company, even while she helps oversee federal highway building efforts.
The department said in a statement on Monday that the stock Ms. Chao held in Vulcan did not create a conflict of interest and that Ms. Chao’s “decision to divest entirely demonstrates her commitment to going above and beyond what is required in terms of compliance.”
Ms. Chao’s family wealth has also benefited her husband, Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who is the Senate majority leader. In 2008, the couple received a gift from Ms. Chao’s father valued between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal disclosures.
The House Oversight Committee sent Ms. Chao 18 different document and information requests related to the two matters, including requests for copies of any communication since January 2017 between Ms. Chao or any employee at the Transportation Department with her father or her sister Angela Chao, who is now the chief executive of Foremost.
The committee also asked for copies by the end of this month of all documents related to a trip that Ms. Chao planned to take to China in October 2017. The trip was canceled after State Department officials raised ethics concerns about her plan to include members of her family in meetings with Chinese government officials, as was reported in June by The Times.
House investigators have sent out many letters like this since Democrats took control in 2019, requests that in many cases the Trump administration has resisted, leading to subpoenas, and growing friction between the House Democrats and the administration.
A spokeswoman for the Oversight Committee said this request to Ms. Chao was the “initial inquiry to Secretary Chao about these specific issues,” suggesting that this is not a matter that the committee has already spent a large amount of time investigating.
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Elaine Chao Investigated by House Panel for Possible Conflicts
By Eric Lipton and Michael Forsythe
6-8 minutes
Politics|Elaine Chao Investigated by House Panel for Possible Conflicts
Image
Actions by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao have led House investigators to question if she is using her office to try to benefit her family’s financial interests.CreditCreditSarah Silbiger/The New York Times
- Sept. 16, 2019Updated 4:48 p.m. ET
The request by the committee in the Democratic-controlled House relates to actions Ms. Chao has taken that potentially benefited Foremost Group, a New York-based shipping company owned by her family. Foremost has received hundreds of millions of dollars in loan commitments from a bank run by the Chinese government to help build ships that Foremost has purchased from government-owned shipyards there.
The actions by Ms. Chao — including joint public appearances since she became transportation secretary in 2017 with her father, James Chao, who founded the company, and a planned trip to China to meet with government officials there along with her father — have led House investigators to question if she is using her office to try to benefit her family’s financial interests.
“Federal regulations prohibit federal employees from using their public offices for the ‘private gain’” of friends or relatives, said the letter sent on Monday to Ms. Chao by the House investigators, who cited articles that appeared in The New York Times in June and Politico in 2018 that detailed continued ties between Ms. Chao and her family’s company. “Several reports indicate that you have used your official position to benefit Foremost Group, a shipping company owned by your father and sisters that is headquartered in New York and operates a fleet that transports materials to and from China.”
The Times investigation found numerous instances in which Ms. Chao, as transportation secretary, may have boosted Foremost’s image. In addition to inviting her father to the department in 2017, she also appeared at a signing ceremony that August at the Harvard Club in New York involving Foremost and the Sumitomo Group, a Japanese company with mass transit projects in the United States that fell under her oversight.
The letter to Ms. Chao cites moves by the department to cut specific grant programs intended to help support the United States maritime industry. They include cuts proposed, but rejected by Congress, in 2017 and 2018 for the Maritime Security Program, which subsidizes American-flagged cargo ships so they are available, when necessary, to help the Pentagon move supplies to war zones. Cutting those grants could have undermined the American maritime industry at the same time her family’s company was receiving support from the Chinese maritime industry.
The committee also asked Ms. Chao about her failure in 2018 to sell off her holdings in Vulcan Materials Company, a manufacturer of road construction materials, despite a promise to do so in an ethics agreement that Ms. Chao signed in early 2017 before her confirmation as transportation secretary.
The letter is signed by Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, the committee’s chairman, and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, Democrat of Illinois, who is the chairman of the panel’s economic and consumer policy subcommittee.
The Transportation Department, in a statement on Monday, said it intended to respond to the request from House investigators, but suggested that the allegations of any conflict of interest were unjustified.
The agency also pointed out that while it did advocate cuts to certain maritime grant programs, overall it has increased maritime spending, particularly on ships used by maritime academies.
“We look forward to responding to the committee’s request,” the statement said. “Media attacks targeting the secretary’s family are stale and only attempt to undermine her long career of public service.”
The agency has also said that Ms. Chao’s failure to sell the Vulcan stock was an oversight that occurred when the company paid her out on stock options she earned while serving on the Vulcan board by issuing her shares of stock in the company instead of paying her cash. Ms. Chao subsequently sold the Vulcan stock, after it was reported, at first by The Wall Street Journal, that she still had financial ties to the company, even while she helps oversee federal highway building efforts.
The department said in a statement on Monday that the stock Ms. Chao held in Vulcan did not create a conflict of interest and that Ms. Chao’s “decision to divest entirely demonstrates her commitment to going above and beyond what is required in terms of compliance.”
Ms. Chao’s family wealth has also benefited her husband, Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who is the Senate majority leader. In 2008, the couple received a gift from Ms. Chao’s father valued between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal disclosures.
The House Oversight Committee sent Ms. Chao 18 different document and information requests related to the two matters, including requests for copies of any communication since January 2017 between Ms. Chao or any employee at the Transportation Department with her father or her sister Angela Chao, who is now the chief executive of Foremost.
The committee also asked for copies by the end of this month of all documents related to a trip that Ms. Chao planned to take to China in October 2017. The trip was canceled after State Department officials raised ethics concerns about her plan to include members of her family in meetings with Chinese government officials, as was reported in June by The Times.
House investigators have sent out many letters like this since Democrats took control in 2019, requests that in many cases the Trump administration has resisted, leading to subpoenas, and growing friction between the House Democrats and the administration.
A spokeswoman for the Oversight Committee said this request to Ms. Chao was the “initial inquiry to Secretary Chao about these specific issues,” suggesting that this is not a matter that the committee has already spent a large amount of time investigating.
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You have 4 free articles remaining.
Chinese Official Charged in Alleged Visa Scheme to Recruit U.S. Science Talent
U.S. officials have warned that Beijing wants to exploit American universities in technology race
The University of Georgia was among the U.S. schools allegedly targeted in the recruitment scheme. The graduation ceremony at the University of Georgia in May. PHOTO: JOSHUA L. JONES/ATHENS BANNER-HERALD/ASSOCIATED PRESS
By
Aruna Viswanatha and
Kate O’Keeffe
Sept. 24, 2019 9:47 am ET
A Chinese government official and his allies allegedly tried to convince at least seven U.S. universities to sponsor visas for purported Chinese research scholars who in reality aimed to recruit American science talent, according to a recently unsealed criminal complaint filed by the Justice Department. They succeeded at least once, the complaint says.
The Wall Street Journal has identified two of the targeted institutions as the University of Georgia and the University of Massachusetts Boston.
The defendant, Zhongsan Liu, was released on bail last week; he hasn’t entered a formal response to the charge that he engaged in a conspiracy to commit visa fraud. A lawyer for Mr. Liu, assistant federal defender Martin Cohen, declined to comment.
The Chinese embassy didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Representatives of the universities said they were cooperating in the probe.
“We prefer not to comment on an ongoing investigation,” said DeWayne Lehman, director of communications for the University of Massachusetts Boston.
A spokesman for the University of Georgia, Gregory Trevor, said: “The university was recently made aware of this matter by federal authorities, who have identified the university as a victim of this alleged scheme.”
The case adds to a growing effort by U.S. officials to stymie what they maintain is a multipronged attempt by Beijing to exploit the U.S. university system to prevail in a race to develop the world’s most advanced technologies.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has long warned that China could use talent-recruitment programs such as its Thousand Talents Plan to lure U.S. university professors into improperly sharing their research. In this case, authorities accuse Mr. Liu of seeking to use universities as the vehicles to bring more talent recruiters into the country.
The complaint also alleges that the head of one university’s Chinese government-funded Confucius Institute offered to assist Mr. Liu in the alleged fraud. While Beijing says that such organizations, which have a presence on campuses around the U.S., are benign language- training centers, U.S. officials have warned that they pose national security risks. An attempt to reach the head of that Confucius Institute for comment was unsuccessful.
In October 2017, the complaint says, Mr. Liu allegedly told a Chinese embassy officer in Washington that his agency, the China Association for International Exchange of Personnel, or CAIEP, had difficulties getting a visa for one of its prospective employees. “It is a bit problematic,” Mr. Liu allegedly said. CAIEP is a Chinese government agency that seeks to recruit experts in science and technology fields for work in China.
A few months later, he started trying to get recruiters into the U.S. by seeking visas meant for visiting research scholars at American universities, the complaint alleges.
The head of the Confucius Institute at a school identifiable as the University of Massachusetts Boston strategized with Mr. Liu in January 2018 about sponsoring one of his employees, the complaint said. “I’ll give it a try and it might work,” the person allegedly told Mr. Liu in a telephone conversation.
The University of Massachusetts Boston disbanded the institute earlier this year, saying it no longer served the academic needs of the school.
Mr. Liu allegedly attempted to get one unnamed school’s Institute of Forensic Science to sponsor an employee. In response to questions from The Wall Street Journal, Henry C. Lee, who founded the Institute of Forensic Science named for him at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, said that an individual had inquired through a third party about such a position. “That application to be a visiting scholar was rejected by me,” he said, adding that the applicant wasn’t suitably qualified.
At least one CAIEP employee, identified as co-conspirator 1, received a J-1 visa in April 2018 to study the “administration of nonprofits,” the complaint said, at the school identifiable as the University of Georgia. The employee, who isn’t named in the complaint, allegedly disclosed on her visa application that she worked for CAIEP, but indicated she hoped to come to the U.S. as a visiting scholar.
After the employee received her Georgia driver’s license, which helped her establish residency, Mr. Liu told her to book her flight to New York, the complaint said. In July 2018, Mr. Liu allegedly told her to visit the University of Georgia again “in order to bolster the fiction that she was a research scholar.”
In November 2018, Mr. Liu allegedly discussed with the employee what to tell CAIEP’s immigration lawyer. He advised that if they provided too many details, “they’ll see that you happen to be doing what is banned in the U.S. Why should you be allowed here?” according to the complaint.
Prosecutors allege that Mr. Liu attempted to engage additional universities to sponsor his employees through a company that The Wall Street Journal has identified as Triway International Group, a firm based in Falls Church, Va., that says on its website it fosters U.S.-China relationships.
Triway’s website features a group of U.S. universities and companies that it describes as “partners,” and a list of Chinese government agencies, universities and state-owned banks and oil firms that it calls “clients.” Its president didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In March 2018, Mr. Liu told colleagues, according to the complaint: “[E]ver since the new US administration took over, it has become very strict in allowing foreign students and visiting scholars to enter the US.”
Write to Aruna Viswanatha at Aruna.Viswanatha@wsj.com and Kate O’Keeffe at kathryn.okeeffe@wsj.com
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...e1228a-e3c5-11e9-b403-f738899982d2_story.html
U.S. citizen charged with spying for China after sting operation
The Justice Department unsealed charges Monday against a U.S. citizen accused of spying for the Chinese government and said the man was arrested after a sting operation in which he received what he thought was classified information that was actually provided by a source working for the U.S. government.
Prosecutors said Xuehua “Edward” Peng used dead drops in the United States to retrieve national security material stored on tiny digital cards. He then traveled to Beijing to pass the cards to his handlers at the Ministry of State Security (MSS), the main Chinese spy agency.
The case against Peng, a naturalized citizen, represents at least the sixth time in the past three years that the department has prosecuted Americans on traditional spying charges related to China. Four of them, including three former U.S. intelligence officers, have been convicted.
Prosecutors also have brought a series of economic espionage cases related to China in recent years. More than 80 percent of all economic spying charges since 2012 have involved China. The Peng prosecution is part of a broader push to confront Chinese espionage, whether economic or traditional, officials said.
“The conduct charged in this case alleges a combination of age-old spycraft and modern technology,” David Anderson, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, said in a statement. “The charges announced today provide a rare glimpse into the secret efforts of the People’s Republic of China to obtain classified national security information from the United States and the battle being waged by our intelligence and law-enforcement communities to protect our people, our ideas, and our national defense.”
The case was made with the help of an unnamed double agent who left SD cards containing ostensibly classified information in prearranged locations in hotels in California and Georgia. The information was cleared by the U.S. government to be transmitted to China, Anderson said. He declined to comment on the nature of the information or give more details about the double agent, identified in the criminal complaint only as the “Source.” The U.S. government has paid the source about $191,000 for services and expenses.
The case, said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security, “illustrates the seriousness of Chinese espionage efforts and the determination of the United States to thwart them.”
The Chinese espionage threat is “multifaceted” and is the FBI’s top counterintelligence priority, said John F. Bennett, the special agent in charge of the San Francisco field office.
Northern California, which includes Silicon Valley, “is a target-rich environment,” Bennett said. “The Chinese frequently prey upon” individuals in the community, including ethnic Chinese residents, whom China “targets” for recruitment, he said.
Peng, a San Francisco-based tour operator, who was arrested Friday at his home in Hayward, Calif., arrived in the United States in June 2001 and was naturalized in 2012, officials said. He allegedly began his work as a courier for the MSS in June 2015 and continued through June 2018. He carried out six dead drops in that time frame, sometimes leaving money for the source, whom he never met, prosecutors said.
The source would gain entry to a hotel room, sometimes telling the front-desk clerk that “his friend ‘Ed’ had reserved a room for him,” according to the complaint. Inside the hotel room, he would leave an SD card for Peng. Sometimes it was hidden in a cigarette pack left in a dresser; sometimes it was taped to a TV stand or a dresser drawer.
On four occasions, Peng left money for the source: cash payments of $10,000 or $20,000.
The FBI intercepted some of Peng’s phone calls with his MSS handlers in Beijing and secretly videotaped Peng. A June 2018 video shows him pulling a wad of cash out of his pocket, counting the money and putting it in an envelope that he tapes to a drawer in a TV stand, officials said.
Peng faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the attorney general.
@88m3 @ADevilYouKhow @wire28 @dtownreppin214
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HOLY shyt!!!!!
reuters.com
Exclusive: U.S. opens national security investigation into TikTok - sources
Greg Roumeliotis
6-7 minutes
NEW YORK/BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has launched a national security review of TikTok owner Beijing ByteDance Technology Co’s $1 billion acquisition of U.S. social media app Musical.ly, according to two people familiar with the matter.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of TikTok application is seen on a mobile phone screen in this picture illustration taken February 21, 2019. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/Illustration/File Photo
While the $1 billion acquisition was completed two years ago, U.S. lawmakers have been calling in recent weeks for a national security probe into TikTok, concerned the Chinese company may be censoring politically sensitive content, and raising questions about how it stores personal data.
TikTok has been growing more popular among U.S. teenagers at a time of growing tensions between the United States and China over trade and technology transfers. About 60% of TikTok’s 26.5 million monthly active users in the United States are between the ages of 16 and 24, the company said earlier this year.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews deals by foreign acquirers for potential national security risks, has started to review the Musical.ly deal, the sources said. TikTok did not seek clearance from CFIUS when it acquired Musical.ly, they added, which gives the U.S. security panel scope to investigate it now.
CFIUS is in talks with TikTok about measures it could take to avoid divesting the Musical.ly assets it acquired, the sources said. Details of those talks, referred to by CFIUS as mitigation, could not be learned. The specific concerns that CFIUS has could also not be learned.
The sources requested anonymity because CFIUS reviews are confidential.
“While we cannot comment on ongoing regulatory processes, TikTok has made clear that we have no higher priority than earning the trust of users and regulators in the U.S. Part of that effort includes working with Congress and we are committed to doing so,” a TikTok spokesperson said. ByteDance did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The U.S. Treasury Department, which chairs CFIUS, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last week, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Tom Cotton asked for a national security probe. They said they were concerned about the video-sharing platform’s collection of user data, and whether China censors content seen by U.S. users. They also suggested TikTok could be targeted by foreign influence campaigns.
“With over 110 million downloads in the U.S. alone, TikTok is a potential counterintelligence threat we cannot ignore,” Schumer and Cotton wrote to Joseph Macguire, acting director of national intelligence.
TikTok allows users to create and share short videos with special effects. The company has said U.S. user data is stored in the United States, but the senators noted that ByteDance is governed by Chinese laws.
TikTok also says China does not have jurisdiction over content of the app, which does not operate in China and is not influenced by any foreign government.
Last month, Musical.ly founder Alex Zhu, who heads the TikTok team, started to report directly to ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming, one of the sources said. He previously reported to Zhang Nan, the head of ByteDance’s Douyin, a Chinese short video app. It was not clear whether this move, which separates TikTok organizationally from ByteDance’s other holdings, was related to the company’s discussions with CFIUS over mitigation.
In October, U.S. senator Marco Rubio asked CFIUS to review ByteDance’s acquisition of Musical.ly. He cited questions about why TikTok had “only had a few videos of the Hong Kong protests that have been dominating international headlines for months.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose product competes with TikTok particularly for younger users, has also criticized the app over censorship concerns.
The United States has been increasingly scrutinizing app developers over the safety of personal data they handle, especially if some of it involves U.S. military or intelligence personnel.
Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd said in May it would seek to sell its popular gay dating app Grindr after it was approached by CFIUS with national security concerns.
Last year, CFIUS forced China’s Ant Financial to scrap plans to buy MoneyGram International Inc over concerns about the safety of data that could be used to identify U.S. citizens.
The panel also compelled Oceanwide Holdings and Genworth Financial Inc to work through a U.S. third party data administrator to ensure the Chinese company could not access the insurer’s U.S. customers’ personal private data.
BYTEDANCE’S RISE
ByteDance is one of China’s fastest growing startups. It owns the country’s leading news aggregator, Jinri Toutiao, as well as TikTok, which has attracted celebrities like Ariana Grande and Katy Perry.
ByteDance counts Japanese technology giant SoftBank, venture firm Sequoia Capital and big private-equity firms such as KKR, General Atlantic and Hillhouse Capital Group as backers.
Analysts have called ByteDance a strong threat to other Chinese tech industry firms including social media and gaming giant Tencent Holdings Ltd and search engine leader Baidu Inc. Globally, ByteDance’s apps have 1.5 billion monthly active users and 700 million daily active users, the company said in July.
The seven-year-old Chinese start-up posted a better-than-expected revenue for the first half of 2019 at over $7 billion, and was valued at $78 billion late last year, sources have told Reuters.
Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Echo Wang in New York, Yingzhi Yang in Beijing and Alexandra Alper in Washington, D.C.; Editing by David Gregorio
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No surprised trump got spy’s of foreign governments in his admin..
like it has been stated since day one He’s a national security risk