The Department of Justice has been ramping up probes into what it calls “transnational repression” by US adversaries such as China and Iran to intimidate political opponents living in the United States.
China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Chen’s plea.
The Chinese government has said there are centres outside China run by local volunteers, not Chinese police officers, that aim to help Chinese citizens renew documents and offer other services. Beijing has accused Washington of fabricating the charges to smear China’s image.
Lu and Chen are US citizens who ran a nonprofit organisation that lists its mission as providing a social gathering place for people from China’s Fujian province, prosecutors said.
Before it closed in the fall of 2022, the men’s New York operation occupied a full floor in a nondescript Chinatown building near the Manhattan Bridge.
Prosecutors said the site was being used in part for mundane government services such as helping some Chinese citizens renew their driver’s licenses – activity they say should have been disclosed to US authorities.
But prosecutors also said that in 2022, Lu was asked by Beijing to locate an individual living in California who was considered a pro-democracy activist. In 2018, Lu had sought to persuade an individual considered a fugitive by China to return home, prosecutors said.
