US Figure Skater's Family an Alleged Target of China Spying

US Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu and her father Arthur Liu—a former political refugee— were among those vicitimized in a spying operation that the Justice Department alleges was ordered by the Chinese government, per the AP. Arthur Liu said he had been contacted by the FBI last October and warned about the scheme just as his 16-year-old daughter was preparing for the Winter Olympics that took place in Beijing in February. The father said he did not tell his daughter about the issue so as not to scare her or distract her from the competition. “We believed Alysa had a very good chance of making the Olympic Team and truly were very scared,” Arthur Liu said. (She did compete, and finished seventh.)

The case is part of charges announced by the Justice Department against five men accused of acting on behalf of the Chinese government for a series of brazen and wide-ranging schemes to stalk and harass Chinese dissidents in the United States. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said he was “not aware of the specifics" surrounding the allegations, but said China is “firmly opposed to the US slandering by making an issue of this out of thin air." Arthur Liu said a man called him in November claiming to be an official with the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee, and asked for his and his daughters’ passport numbers. Arthur Liu refused to provide them. One of the men arrested was allegedly hired to perform surveillance on the family.

In another alleged scheme, a man alleged to be a Chinese government operative sought to undermine the candidacy of a congressional candidate by plotting to locate, or even manufacture, derogatory information that could prevent him from being elected. The operative, identified as Qiming Lin, is accused of having contacted a private investigator seeking information about the candidate's phone number, address, and vehicle. He later asked the investigator to “dig up things from 1989 to now” in search of flaws against the candidate to derail his candidacy. The candidate was not named, but the New York Times says it appears to be Yan Xiong, who announced his candidacy for a House seat from New York last fall. (Read more details of the arrests and the alleged plots.)