A Chinese-American who allegedly operated an overseas Chinese police station in New York City admitted to opening the police station and to his link to Chinese state security in interviews with the FBI in the fall of 2022, Assistant United States Attorney Lindsey Oken said in opening statements at his trial Wednesday.
Lu Jianwan, 64, an American citizen, also known as Harry Lu and the former head of the American ChangLe Association, admitted he had a handler in China’s main security and law enforcement organization, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), in interviews with the FBI in October and December of 2022, prosecutors said.
Lu is charged with conspiring to act as an agent of the Chinese government, and with failing to register as a foreign agent. He is also charged with obstruction of justice for deleting his communications with China’s MPS.
Oken said Lu also admitted to the FBI that he communicated via Chinese messaging app WeChat with the MPS. After meeting with the FBI, Lu allegedly deleted messages from those communications. Oken said the FBI was able to recover some of these messages from other devices, and the government will present them at trial.
Appearing in a black suit and a light blue tie, Lu seemed calm and at ease as his trial started Wednesday in the Brooklyn borough of New York City in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), anyone acting on behalf of a foreign government is required to declare their association by filing documentation with the FARA office at the Department of Justice.
In his opening statement, Lu’s attorney, John Carman, said, “Harry Lu was arrested for failing to file a form,” and belittled the obstruction charge as being about a missing WeChat message. Carman said the case is one of “guilt by association,” arguing that Lu did nothing wrong, but merely associated and communicated with officials of the Chinese government, which the Department of Commerce has officially designated as an adversary.
Hellbound and Down 