Mao Ning, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, called the United States a “safe haven for criminals” following the conviction of two Chinese nationals and a former NYPD sergeant for stalking a former Wuhan city official and his wife.
The ex-cop, Michael McMahon, was working as a private investigator with two Chinese men, Zheng Congying and Zhu Yong. Zhu hired McMahon to track down the former official, who was living in New Jersey with his wife, according to the Department of Justice. When McMahon did, Zheng tried to force himself into their home, failed, and left a note reading “If you are willing to go back to the mainland and spend 10 years in prison, your wife and children will be all right. That’s the end of this matter!” prosecutors said.
China accused the former official, identified as Xu Jin by the Associated Press, of taking bribes. Xu and his wife deny this, and instead say that Chinese officials were going after him over disagreements with the Chinese Communist Party.
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Xu was a target of China’s “Operation Fox Hunt,” launched in 2014. China says that the initiative is to bring criminals living overseas to justice, as it doesn’t have extradition treaties with other nations. Operation Fox Hunt is an attempt to find corrupt officials as part of the country’s efforts to stop graft.
“No matter where they have fled and how long … we must track them down and bring them to justice,” Huang Shuxian, a senior party disciplinary inspection official, told the official Xinhua News Agency when Operation Fox Hunt was first launched.
Critics, however, say it’s more about silencing dissent, and that Operation Fox Hunt works extrajudicially. Last year, a Chinese national was charged in Manhattan Federal Court over a case where a pregnant U.S. citizen was detained in China for eight months in an attempt to get her mother to face charges in China.
Speaking about Tuesday’s convictions, Mao said that Operation Fox Hunt was “fully justified.”
“The need to fight cross-border crimes, repatriate corrupt fugitives and recover illegal proceeds is widely recognized by the international community. It is a just cause,” she said. “The US, on the other hand, has chosen to ignore the facts, deliberately distorted China’s efforts as something sinister and even resorted to judicial action. China firmly opposes this.
“We urge the US to immediately right its wrongdoing, fulfill its obligations under the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the UN Convention against Corruption and other international treaties, step up to its international responsibilities and stop America from turning into a safe haven for criminals,” she continued.
The three have not been sentenced yet. McMahon could get up to 20 years in prison on charges of acting as an illegal agent of China, interstate stalking and conspiracy to commit interstate stalking. Zheng could get 10 years following his conviction for interstate stalking and conspiracy to commit interstate stalking. Zhu could get 25 years for acting as an illegal Chinese agent, conspiracy to act as an illegal Chinese agent, interstate stalking and conspiracy to commit interstate stalking.