‘Justice arrived’: Boston man cleared of US charges he acted as Chinese agent

BOSTON – A jury found a Boston man not guilty on Feb 10 of US charges that he acted as an unlawful agent of China’s government by supplying officials information about individuals, dissidents and groups in the local Chinese community.

Mr Litang Liang, 65, was acquitted in federal court of charges that he acted as an unregistered Chinese agent

in a case brought in 2023

that the US authorities had portrayed as part of their commitment to counter efforts by China’s government to silence its critics abroad.

Mr Liang, a China-born US citizen, had denied the charges and pleaded not guilty.

His lawyer during the trial called the charges “ridiculous” and called them an effort to chill the free speech of a local community activist who advocated for the

“reunification” of democratically governed Taiwan with China

– a view in harmony with China’s leaders.

“Justice has finally arrived,” Mr Liang told reporters through a translator following the verdict.

US attorney Leah Foley, whose office pursued the case, said in a statement that while prosecutors “respect the jury’s decision, we are disappointed in (the Feb 10) verdict”.

Mr Liang had worked at a hotel and for years had been an active member in his union as well as a community organiser and activist in the Chinese-American community in Boston, according to his lawyer, Mr Derege Demissie.

Assistant US attorney Timothy Kistner told jurors on Feb 7 during closing arguments in the case that China’s government sought out Mr Liang because it “wanted someone already involved in the community who knew the people who were there”.

Prosecutors said Mr Liang from 2018 to 2022 provided Chinese officials with information on individuals and shared details about dissent and groups with pro-Taiwan leanings.

Prosecutors said that in 2018, after travelling to Beijing for meetings with an arm of the Chinese Communist Party, Mr Liang founded the New England Alliance for the Peaceful Unification of China, which focused on promoting China’s goals with Taiwan.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory. Taiwan rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.

Prosecutors said Mr Liang, also at the direction of Chinese officials, in 2019 organised a counter-demonstration against pro-democracy protesters, and in 2022, provided an official with a Chinese agency tasked with investigating political dissent information on two potential local recruits.

Mr Demissie in his closing argument to the jury countered that Mr Liang made no secret of his activism and that his prosecution infringed Mr Liang’s right to free speech under the US Constitution’s First Amendment.

“This case would have meant nothing if it did not involve China,” Mr Demissie said. “That’s what this is about. And it had the purpose of scaring people, and it achieved that purpose.” REUTERS