A former UC Davis researcher charged with fraud for allegedly concealing her identity as a Chinese military scientist is believed to be taking refuge at the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, authorities said in a new court filing.
A former UC Davis researcher charged with fraud for allegedly concealing her identity as a Chinese military scientist is believed to be taking refuge at the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, authorities said in a new court filing. The consulate has been providing a safe harbor for Chinese national Tang Juan to avoid prosecution since she went to the building at 1450 Laguna St. after FBI agents interviewed her on June 20, prosecutors said Monday. Tang is believed to be part of a Chinese program “to send military scientists to the United States on false pretenses with false covers or false statements about their true employment,” wrote Assistant U. S. Attorney Benjamin Kingsley. “There exists evidence in at least one of these cases of a military scientist copying or stealing information from American institutions at the direction of military superiors in China,” Kingsley continued in the court filing. The news comes amid escalating tensions between the U. S. and China. On Wednesday, U. S. officials reportedly ordered the Chinese government to close its consulate in Houston “to protect American intellectual property.
