What China's spies are doing in the U.S., and what happens when they're caught
According to the latest assessment from America's intelligence agencies, China "remains the most active and persistent cyber threat to [the] U.S." Its hackers have infiltrated the U.S. government, the private sector, and critical infrastructure, like water systems and power grids. Hacking, however, has not replaced Beijing's pursuit of old-fashioned human intelligence. China's Communist Party remains intent on leveraging a worldwide network of covert agents to monitor and influence events outside its own borders, and to surveil and intimidate Chinese dissidents right here in America. Tonight, you'll hear about why China's spies are on the rise, and what happens when one gets caught.
Jim Lewis: This is – in scale, and in scope, and in brazenness – the biggest espionage operation against the U.S. in its history.
Jim Lewis is a former U.S. diplomat whose direct experience with China's intelligence agencies spans more than 30 years.
He says since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, China's spies no longer seem to fear the U.S.
Norah O'Donnell: Why do China's espionage efforts appear to be growing so big so fast under Xi Jinping?
Jim Lewis: Xi Jinping thinks, "It's China's time to move to the center of the world stage." Xi Jinping looks at the West and at the U.S. and says, "These people are feeble-minded, and I'm gonna be able to beat them."
It may not be a household name in the U.S. but according to Lewis, China's Ministry of State Security, or MSS, is now the largest and most active spy agency in the world.
In a propaganda video the spy agency posted last year on China's largest social network, a voiceover boasts that the MSS "senses things before they happen" and "fights against evil."
The slick production is a public message to both foreign adversaries and China's own citizens about the ministry's growing power.
Jim Lewis: It's sorta the equivalent of the CIA, but it has much greater powers. One estimate says the MSS might have 600,000 employees. And they are committed to going after the United States. We are target number two for them.
Norah O'Donnell: Who's target number one?
Jim Lewis: Target number one is China's own people. When Xi Jinping wakes up screaming in the middle of the night, he's really worried that the Chinese Communist Party was on the path that the Soviet Communist Party was on.
Lewis says to maintain absolute power at home, President Xi looks abroad.
Jim Lewis: Xi Jinping probably remembers that a lot of revolutions start outside the home country, and he doesn't want that to happen to China. So there's a huge effort to pay attention to the expatriate population.
One way Beijing paid attention, according to the FBI, was to secretly open an overseas Chinese police station right in the middle of New York City. It was discovered in 2022, hidden among businesses in a commercial building in Manhattan's Chinatown. While Chinese expats could renew government documents there like driver's licenses, federal prosecutors said the main purpose of the outpost was to target and harass Chinese dissidents.
Jim Lewis: They've done it in The Netherlands, they've done it in Canada. But the idea that you'd open a police station in another country, that's a signal disrespect of the sovereignty of that nation.
After the station was shut down, two Chinese-Americans who allegedly opened it were charged with conspiracy to act as unregistered foreign agents of China.
In total, over the last five years, the Department of Justice has indicted more than 140 people for felonies related to harassment, hacking, and spying for China within the U.S.
And one of the accused worked for the governor of New York. Federal prosecutors allege a former top aide to Kathy Hochul, named Linda Sun, accepted millions of dollars to influence who the governor met with, and what she said about China. Sun and her husband, who have pled not guilty, owned a multi-million dollar home on Long Island and a condo in Hawaii.
Jim Lewis: Having a Ferrari and two mil-- multi-million dollar houses is a bad idea-- but--
Norah O'Donnell: For a government employee.
Jim Lewis: Everyone leaves a record. Some records are more flamboyant than others.
"Flamboyant" is not a word that comes to mind when you meet Shujun Wang. The 76-year-old retired historian came to the U.S. from China in 1994 as a visiting scholar at Columbia University.
In New York, home to more exiled Chinese activists than any other city in the world, Wang helped found a group that met regularly and was dedicated to democracy in China.
Shujun Wang (In Mandarin/English translation): In the 2010s, the overseas democracy movement was gaining momentum, and I was eager to be a part of it and promote democracy.
Norah O'Donnell: What was your specific role in the pro-democracy community in Flushing, Queens?
Shujun Wang (In Mandarin/English translation): I was assigned the role of vice president/secretary general for publicity and events – all kinds of events.
While Shujun Wang became a trusted member of the Chinese dissident community here in New York, he kept another role secret: for almost 20 years, he was spying for China's Ministry of State Security.
Norah O'Donnell: Did you take notes about who attended these meetings and what they said?
Shujun Wang (In Mandarin/English translation): Yes.
Norah O'Donnell: When did you start sharing that information with China's largest intelligence group?
Shujun Wang (In Mandarin/English translation): That is a very big misunderstanding.
In 2022, Shujun Wang was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for sharing dissidents' names, contact information, and private conversations at the direction of the MSS, for 17 years.
When we spoke with him in February through an interpreter, he was at times combative and disputed basic facts of his case, so we eventually asked Mr. Wang point blank:
Norah O'Donnell: Were you spying for the Chinese government?
Shujun Wang (In Mandarin/English translation): No. Throughout the entire trial they were very careful. They never used the word "spy." Just look at the record and you'll see that.
We did, and while lying to 60 Minutes may not be a crime, lying to the FBI is.
Mr. Wang repeatedly told federal agents he had no contact with the Ministry of State Security. But according to federal prosecutors, he met with these MSS officers in China, and they offered him plane tickets and helped his family with a business dispute.
In 2021, someone claiming to be from the MSS showed up at Mr. Wang's door to help delete communications from his computer that might incriminate him. Video from the encounter showed he welcomed the man's help. Unfortunately for Mr. Wang, the Chinese operative was actually an undercover FBI agent.
Mr. Wang had pled not guilty. This past August he was convicted of making false statements, illegally possessing democracy activists' identification, and acting as an unregistered foreign agent of China.
Zach Margulis-Ohnuma: Our position has always been that he never had the intent to be an agent of the Chinese government.
Mr. Wang's lawyers Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma and Kevin Tung admit their client was in touch with Chinese intelligence, but they argue he didn't break the law – and claim FBI agents went after him once they were unable to recruit him for the U.S.
Zach Margulis-Ohnuma: They were hoping he would roll over and identify handlers higher up the food chain. Now he did not do so. And they felt a little vindictive and angry and frustrated about their inability to stop higher up actual espionage. And they-- they turned him into this fall guy.
Kevin Tung: When you look at in reality, he didn't have any access to secret, top secret information. All he passed over is the attendance sheet of the democracy movement. Those information are available in public.
Norah O'Donnell: People's names that attend a private event are not public. They're only made public--
Zach Margulis-Ohnuma: Well, can we-- can we--
Zach Margulis-OhnumaL Can we home in on that?
Zach Margulis-Ohnuma: So there's no evidence of any harm to the United States' interests or to demo-- democracy movement interests from anything that he did.
Anna Yeung-Cheung disagrees. She testified against Mr. Wang in court.
The pro-democracy activist's name and contact information, along with 63 others, was found in Mr. Wang's luggage when he returned to New York from a trip to China in 2019.
Norah O'Donnell: Did you ever imagine that Mr. Wang was one of the people who was reporting what you were doing and others back to China?
Anna Yeung-Cheung: Not at all.
Norah O'Donnell: Did you lose sleep over it?
Anna Yeung-Cheung: Yeah. And I also made sure my door chain was on all the time at night, because you never know.
Born in Hong Kong, Ms. Yeung-Cheung is now a U.S. citizen and professor of biology. She organizes demonstrations for the Hong Kong democracy movement in the U.S., where she's become increasingly wary of who might be watching.
Anna Yeung-Cheung: I believe they are collecting information.
Norah O'Donnell: What kind of information?
Anna Yeung-Cheung: Like, what are we doing, what exactly what we are saying in the protests, and how many people are showing up there, things like that.
Norah O'Donnell: And collecting that information for whom?
Anna Yeung-Cheung: For Beijing.
Norah O'Donnell: Why do you think China goes to such lengths to spy on pro-democracy activists here in the U.S.?
Anna Yeung-Cheung: This is their tactics, right? They try to silence you, harass you, or intimidate you so that you stop what you're doing.
Anna Kwok now runs the pro-democracy organization that Anna Yeung-Cheung co-founded. Because of her outspoken activism, the Hong Kong government has placed a $130,000 bounty on her head.
Anna Kwok: So every single day I wake up, I open my social media, and then I would see people talking about how, if I keep talking-- here in the United States, they will come kidnap me and-- take my body to the Chinese Consulate so that they can send me back to China.
Norah O'Donnell: How are you viewed by the Chinese government?
Anna Kwok: If I do go back to Hong Kong, it's gonna be life imprisonment. So basically they see me as a traitor, as someone who betrays-- the Chinese government and the Hong Kong government.
Norah O'Donnell: And what's the crime you've committed?
Anna Kwok: They think that fighting for democracy, wanting a say in our own future is a crime.
Norah O'Donnell: The United States is known as the land of the free. Do you feel free here?
Anna Kwok: Honestly, with China's long arm repression, it's difficult to feel free anywhere in the world. The thing about the Chinese government is that you can leave the country, you can leave the territory, but you can never actually leave their governance.
After we met her, Anna kwok's father and brother were arrested in Hong Kong. She is currently seeking political asylum in the U.S.
In March, the Trump administration announced sanctions against officials in Hong Kong who have targeted her and 18 other prominent activists living abroad.
As for Shujun Wang, on April 14, a federal judge sentenced him to three years supervised release. He spared Mr. Wang prison time, because of health problems including cognitive decline, but the judge reiterated he had committed "serious" crimes against the U.S.
Jim Lewis: He was an agent. He worked with the Chinese government to identify targets for them to surveil and compromise.
According to China analyst Jim Lewis, there's still no substitute for on the ground human intelligence, even if Mr. Wang was an expendable asset for China's top spy agency.
Norah O'Donnell: Not exactly James Bond.
Jim Lewis: Definitely not James Bond, definitely not. That's the scary part though is that the Chinese are very good, and so he was not number one on the list of assets to protect. That means there are other assets who are being protected.
Produced by Keith Sharman and Roxanne Feitel. Broadcast associates, Mimi Lamarre and Callie Teitelbaum. Edited by Robert Zimet.
