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espionage

Hong Kong Detains Parents of Activist Frances Hui Amid $1M Bounty, Echoing Election Interference Fears in Canada

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5 minute read

Sam Cooper

In a deeply alarming escalation of transnational repression that echoes threats made against a Canadian election candidate, Hong Kong’s national security police today detained the parents of U.S. resident Frances Hui, a prominent Hong Kong democracy activist who previously testified before Canada’s Parliament about Chinese government harassment on Western soil.

Hui, who fled Hong Kong and was granted asylum in Washington, D.C., faces a HK$1 million bounty issued in December 2023 under Beijing’s sweeping National Security Law. She had warned Canadian lawmakers that the Chinese Communist Party was targeting overseas activists—including herself and others with Canadian ties—through intimidation, surveillance, and harassment campaigns executed by proxies abroad.

The detention in Hong Kong on Thursday, April 10, comes just one week after the U.S. State Department sanctioned six Hong Kong and Chinese officials and two days after a bill was reintroduced in Congress to shutter Hong Kong’s de facto embassies in the U.S. Hui’s advocacy played a major role in both moves.

Hui, the Advocacy and Policy Coordinator for the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation, condemned the police action against her family as “emotional blackmail.”

“My parents and I have had no contact since I left Hong Kong in 2020,” Hui said in a statement. “The police arranged a crowd of media to photograph their exit from the police station—to humiliate them. This is a deliberate attempt to intimidate and silence me.”

The targeting of Hui’s family may intensify concerns in diaspora communities that the Chinese Communist Party is attempting to obtain multiple objectives, potentially sending a message timed to Canada’s 2025 federal election—especially after recent remarks from a former Liberal candidate in Markham–Unionville stoked widespread alarm.

Paul Chiang, who resigned last week amid an RCMP review into controversial remarks, had reportedly suggested that Conservative opponent Joe Tay—a Canadian citizen wanted under Hong Kong’s National Security Law—could be taken to the Chinese Consulate in Toronto to claim a bounty.

Chiang, a former Markham police officer who unseated longtime Conservative representative Bob Saroya to win Markham–Unionville for Team Trudeau in 2021, stepped down after the RCMP confirmed it was investigating his comments to Chinese-language media in January 2025.

On the latest threats to Hui and her family, CFHK Foundation President Mark Clifford said: “This is outrageous targeting of a young woman who has lived in the U.S. for the last five years and whose advocacy and freedom of speech is protected under U.S. laws. The CFHK Foundation will continue to support Frances and all those with the courage to speak out against the crimes being perpetrated in Hong Kong and the low-class bullies who perpetrate them.”

Earlier in Canada’s election campaign, which is quickly becoming marked by reports of Chinese interference, Tay, a former Hong Kong broadcaster whose independent journalism has drawn retaliation from Beijing, quickly rejected Chiang’s apology, calling it “the tradecraft of the Chinese Communist Party.” He added: “They are not just aimed at me; they are intended to send a chilling signal to the entire community to force compliance with Beijing’s political goals.”

As previously reported by The Bureau, Hui detailed her experience with transnational repression in testimony before Canada’s Subcommittee on International Human Rights. She recounted how she was targeted by a naturalized U.S. citizen—now under federal indictment in Massachusetts—who allegedly spied on dissidents for the Chinese government.

“Between 2018 and 2022, this individual spied on members and leaders of Boston-area Chinese family associations and community organizations, as well as anti-PRC dissidents,” Hui told the committee. “In one incident, he mobilized hundreds to harass us. I was followed home and had to call the police. I regularly receive phone calls from men speaking Chinese.”

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Iran nuclear talks were ‘coordinated deception’ between US and Israel: report

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From LifeSiteNews

By Kyle Anzalone

Reports state that U.S. peace talks were a ruse and that Trump gave Netanyahu a ‘green light’ to hit Iran’s nuclear and military sites, killing top commanders.

A senior Israeli official told the Jerusalem Post that Tel Aviv and Washington worked together to convince Tehran that diplomacy was still possible after Israel was ready to attack Iran. Just hours before Israel’s massive assault began, President Donald Trump maintained he was still committed to talks.

The Israeli outlet reports, “The round of U.S.-Iranian nuclear negotiations scheduled for Sunday was part of a coordinated U.S.-Israeli deception aimed at lowering Iran’s guard ahead of Friday’s attack.”

READ: Israel strikes Iran’s nuclear sites, kills top commanders in massive air assault

In a post on Truth Social shortly before the Israeli strikes began, Trump declared that “We remain committed to a Diplomatic Resolution to the Iran Nuclear Issue! My entire Administration has been directed to negotiate with Iran. They could be a Great Country, but they first must completely give up hopes of obtaining a Nuclear Weapon. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

After the Israeli attack was in progress, Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied that the U.S. was involved. However, American officials have said the White House was aware Israel was set to begin striking Iran, with Trump telling Fox News he was briefed on the operation.

Barak Ravid of Axios, moreover, later reported that Tel Aviv was given “a clear U.S. green light” to start bombing, citing two unnamed Israeli officials.

Sources speaking with Axios said the perceived split between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was coordinated behind the scenes. “Two Israeli officials claimed to Axios that Trump and his aides were only pretending to oppose an Israeli attack in public – and didn’t express opposition in private,” the report explained. “The goal, they say, was to convince Iran that no attack was imminent and make sure Iranians on Israel’s target list wouldn’t move to new locations.”

The sources said that Trump and Netanyahu discussed the attack during a phone call on Monday. After the call, reports said Trump pressed Netanyahu not to attack Iran, but that was another effort to deceive Iran.

In a second post following the attack, Trump said he gave Iran the opportunity to make a deal, and suggested that Israel used American weapons in the massive air raid. “I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it,’ but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done,” the president wrote.

The U.S. and Iran began negotiations on establishing a new nuclear agreement in April, with the two sides engaging in five rounds of Omani-mediated talks. At times, a deal appeared possible, with Iranian officials saying the dialogue was leading to progress. A sixth round of talks was scheduled for Sunday, but now appears unlikely.

A second source speaking with the Jerusalem Post said the goal of Israel’s military operations was not the complete destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities, but rather to hit missile sites and top Iranian leaders to bring down the government.

Israel has conducted several rounds of strikes so far, hitting nuclear facilities, residential buildings in Tehran, and military sites. Iran has confirmed that several military leaders and nuclear scientists were killed in the bombing.

Reprinted with permission from Antiwar.com.

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espionage

FBI Director: CCP Behind Wave of Pathogen Smuggling as Third Chinese Student Charged in Michigan Lab Probe

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Sam Cooper's avatar Sam Cooper

“In a follow up interview with FBI and ICE HSI agents, Han admitted to sending the packages and lying about their contents”

In an intensifying pattern of national security investigations targeting unauthorized biological shipments from China into Detroit, U.S. authorities on Monday confirmed the arrest of a third Chinese national allegedly involved in smuggling undeclared bio-materials into the United States—this time for use at a University of Michigan laboratory.

“This case is part of a broader effort from the FBI and our federal partners to heavily crack down on similar pathogen smuggling operations, as the Chinese Communist Party works relentlessly to undermine America’s research institutions,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted to X on Monday evening.

The latest defendant, Chengxuan Han, is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China and a doctoral student at the College of Life Science and Technology in Wuhan. She has been charged with smuggling goods into the U.S. and making false statements, according to a federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

From September 2024 through March 2025, prosecutors allege, Han sent four international shipments containing concealed biological materials to individuals affiliated with a University of Michigan lab. The contents were identified as Caenorhabditis elegans — roundworms commonly used in genetic and biomedical research. The packages were mis-manifested and not declared in accordance with U.S. import regulations.

On June 8, Han arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on a J-1 visa and was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. She allegedly denied having sent any biological materials to the U.S. and made false statements about the nature of the shipments. Agents also discovered that content on her electronic device had been deleted three days before her arrival — a detail included in the federal complaint.

“In a follow up interview with FBI and ICE HSI agents, Han admitted to sending the packages and lying about their contents,” Patel commented.

“The alleged smuggling of biological materials by this alien from a science and technology university in Wuhan, China — to be used at a University of Michigan laboratory — is part of an alarming pattern that threatens our security,” said U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. “The American taxpayer should not be underwriting a PRC-based smuggling operation at one of our crucial public institutions.”

The case marks the third time in one week that Chinese nationals connected to the University of Michigan have been charged with allegedly smuggling undeclared biological material from China into the U.S. for laboratory research.

On June 3, federal prosecutors charged Yunqing Jian, 33, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, and her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, 34, with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the U.S., false statements, and visa fraud. Jian and Liu are accused of importing Fusarium graminearum — a fungus considered in some scientific literature to be a potential agroterrorism threat — into the country without proper declaration.

Officials allege Liu, who conducts research on the same pathogen at a university in China, initially lied to investigators but later admitted to smuggling the fungus for research in Jian’s Michigan lab.

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