U.S.'s 5,025,817 Chinese Spies

Chinese arrested for taking photos at Naval Air Station in Key West
By Jay Weaver
The future USS Billings is docked at the Naval Air Station Key West’s Truman Waterfront base on Aug. 1, 2019.

The day after Christmas, a Chinese man rose early because, he said, he wanted to take photographs of the sunrise on the grounds of the Naval Air Station in Key West.
It was only a matter of time before witnesses spotted Lyuyou Liao at 6:50 a.m. Thursday walking around a perimeter fence and entering the military facility from the rocks along the water.
They warned Liao that he was trespassing in a restricted area, known as the Truman Annex, as he took photographs of government buildings near “sensitive military facilities,” according to a federal criminal complaint filed Thursday.
Then, U.S. Military Police saw him snapping photos with the camera on his cellphone, approached him and took a look at the pictures.
The police officers immediately called a federal agent, who arrested Liao on a charge of entering Naval property for the purpose of photographing defense installations.
Liao agreed to waive his Miranda rights and told the agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in broken English that “he was trying to take photographs of the sunrise,” according to the complaint affidavit.
But when Liao provided the pass code to his cellphone and allowed the agent to look at the images, he “observed photographs of Truman Annex on the camera.”
Liao, 27, had his first federal court appearance Friday afternoon in Key West via a video hookup with Magistrate Judge Patrick Hunt in Fort Lauderdale and Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Gilbert in Miami.
Hunt appointed the federal public defender’s office to represent Liao and scheduled his pretrial detention hearing for Jan. 6.
His arraignment will be a week later.
Liao’s arrest marks the second time since last year that a Chinese national has been charged with taking photos of defense installations at the Naval Air Station in Key West
In September of last year, Zhao Qianli, who claimed to be a music "student" from China, got caught by the Key West police for trespassing onto the high-security Naval Air Station.
He later told federal authorities that he lost his way on the tourist trail and did not realize it was a military base.
Investigators found photos and videos on Qianli’s cellphone as well as on his digital camera that he had taken of government buildings and a Defense Department antenna field on the military base.
Qianli, 20, pleaded guilty in February to one count of photographing defense installations at the Key West military facility and was sentenced to one year in prison by U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore. 
The judge gave him the maximum sentence, which was higher than the sentencing guidelines between zero and six months.
The U.S. attorney’s office sought nine months in prison.
The following March, a Chinese woman was arrested at President Donald Trump’s private club in Palm Beach after she bluffed her way into Mar-a-Lago to attend a purported “United Nations friendship” event that she knew had been canceled before she left China.
Yujin Zhang, 33, was charged with trespassing in a restricted area and lying to a federal agent.
In September, Zhang was convicted at trial and sentenced in November to eights months in prison — or the time she had been in custody since her arrest — by U.S. District Judge Roy Altman.
Another Chinese woman, Lu Jing, 56, was arrested December 18 after she had been reported trespassing and taking pictures at Mar-a-Lago.

Sick man of Asia

How China’s ‘Dr. Charles’ peddles claims of access to U.S. power
By Anna Fifield

A photo from the defunct website for Charles Lee’s United Nations Chinese Friendship Association showing what it said was Lee with Donald Trump.

Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach, Fla. The arrest of a Chinese woman at the club last weekend has been linked to a Chinese influence peddler who calls himself “Dr. Charles.” 

BEIJING — “Dr. Charles” pitches himself as a conduit to American power. 

His social media pages and the website of his organization — audaciously called the United Nations Chinese Friendship Association — are a who’s who of Florida Republicans and glitzy Mar-a-Lago dinners.
He boasts about meeting Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, and President Trump’s elder sister Elizabeth in the banquet hall of Mar-a-Lago, “at the invitation” of the Republican National Committee. 

He’s taken photos at Mar-a-Lago with women in glittery evening gowns or selfies with Trump in the background, giving a speech at his Florida club.
In other brag-book-style photos, he’s posing, in a red silk Chinese-style jacket, in front of “Trump Pence victory” signs at Republican events.
But “Dr. Charles” appears to be neither a doctor nor a Charles. 

And his organization, with a self-styled imprimatur of the United Nations, similarly appears to be a commercial influence-peddling operation looking for a veneer of respectability.
“Dr. Charles,” whose real name is Li Weitian, according to bank records, has become a central figure in the Chinese effort to get close to Trump and influential Republicans.
He goes to the president’s Florida country club so regularly that Yujing Zhang — the Chinese woman arrested at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday — told Secret Service agents that she was there to meet “her Chinese friend Charles.”
In an encounter with a receptionist, Zhang also mentioned a group with a similar name to the United Nations Chinese Friendship Association.
“Charles” proclaims himself to be the secretary general of the group, which was legally registered in Delaware on June 15, 2011, according to a statement posted on Business Wire in 2012.
The same statement said that at the end of November that year, “Charles” met with You Lantian, who was deputy director of the United Front Work Department. 

This department is an influential unit of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee, responsible for coordinating these kinds of influence operations.
A photo of “Charles” and You appeared on the front page of the association’s website, which the Miami Herald reported was taken down after the paper ran a story about “Charles,” whom the paper identified as going by Charles Lee.
Since establishing the association, he has devoted himself to collecting photos with influential people in the United States, often opportunistic selfies when the “celebrity” isn’t even aware of being photographed.
On QQ, a Chinese social media app, he posted photos of himself with U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, and his predecessor, Ban Ki-moon.
There’s also a photo that appears to be of “Dr. Charles” posing with Trump against a blue background. 

Trump is giving his trademark thumbs up and Charles is decked out in a gray Mao jacket, but it’s not clear if the photo is genuine.
His QQ profile page shows “Charles,” arms crossed, on the cover of a magazine called “People of the Century.”
“Charles, who began the UNCFA,” says the magazine cover, which he posted on QQ on March 6. 

It is not clear if the magazine cover is genuine.
Just last month, he posted an ad for a tour of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he claimed former president Barack Obama would be speaking. 

“You can participate in a meeting with Obama and other celebrities, take photos with them,” he said, listing the tour dates as June 18 to 25.
Obama’s office said he had no plans to speak at West Point in June.
Earlier, “Charles” had offered a trip to Omaha in May to “shake hands and take photos” with billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
In August, he paid to have his face beamed onto the Nasdaq billboard in Times Square — and then submitted an article about it to a Chinese publication called “People of China Weekly,” an imitation website made to look like it’s part of the People’s Daily, the main newspaper of the Communist Party of China.
“At a place known as the crossroad of the world, he [Charles] joined Fortune 500 entrepreneurs at the same global stage in showing the world that how the Chinese people are dedicated to world peace,” the article said. 

“We will be U.N. peacekeepers and fight for a bigger say in terms of global publicity, on behalf of all Chinese people around the world.”
“Charles” has built a business in which potential Chinese clients are encouraged to think he can get them through the same doors.
“We are a part of the United Nations. If you pay money, you can be a member” of his group, he told the Southern Weekend newspaper in January.
The United Nations Chinese Friendship Association, however, is not on any list of nongovernmental organizations with U.N. affiliation.
He said membership would bring opportunities to attend events like those he had posted on his WeChat social media account of himself attending events with George W. Bush and Warren Buffett. “There are loads of opportunities like this,” he bragged.
Basic membership, which costs about $450 a year, comes with a certificate and a bronze medal from his United Nations Chinese Friendship Association. 

There are tiers of membership, with the vice chairman level — a cool $30,000 — bringing opportunities to attend high-level state visits.
“The upgraded services means that we arrange schedules more flexibly and assist you in inviting government officials, experts and scholars to be your consultants,” he told the newspaper. 

“Higher price comes with higher privilege.”
His association literature said the dues were to be paid into a bank account listed as belonging to Beijing Peace and Friendship Business Management Company Ltd., registered under the name of Li Weitian.
In one document still available online, outlining a trip he was offering to the United States in December 2012, “Charles” said he would take members to U.N. headquarters in New York, where he said former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and former president Bill Clinton would be making speeches. 

The U.N. news site lists Bloomberg and Clinton at a U.N. event in October, but there was no mention of December appearances.
He also offered a trip to the White House and “visiting politicians and Asian leaders” in Washington, and to attend a conference at Harvard where there would be “multiple professors.”
Documents from 2012 list a range of “honorary” associates of the group, including top political and business figures from the United States, Europe and Asia. 

And documents from last year list several U.S. political players as holding honorary roles with the association.
Despite all the braggadocio, little is known about the man behind this association.
His LinkedIn page, where his profile photo shows him with Ban Ki-moon in a black bow tie, a sign they met at a function, lists him simply as “Charles” in English and Chinese. 

It says he is based in the central Beijing district of Chaoyang.
It lists his work history as secretary general of the United Nations Chinese Friendship Association — but provides no dates — and as the CEO of “US Wall Street Capital United Investment Group.”
The Beijing branch of the Wall Street Capital investment company, registered under the name “Heigan McBob,” had its business license revoked in 2012, according to Alibaba company credit records.
For his education, “Charles” has written “PhD in management from Golden State university” and given the dates as 2008 to 2020, suggesting that he’s still studying. 

The website for Golden State University shows it is based in southern Los Angeles and offers a master’s degree in Asian medicine. 

It does not show a doctorate program or any classes in management.
There was no immediate response from the university on the claims.
His only other qualification is from the “United Nations Certification Association.” 

This association has a website that is only in Chinese and, again, does not appear to be linked to the United Nations.
Washington Post reporters on Wednesday visited the Beijing address listed for the United Nations Chinese Friendship Association but found no such organization. 

The real estate management company said there was no record of such a tenant.
The Post also sent messages through WeChat to the number listed for Li on multiple pages, including on ads showing a Trump family photo and the caption “invitation to meet Trump at a banquet at Mar-a-Lago.” 

The account was listed as “Peace Dove,” and when asked if it belonged to Charles, the user sent back a photo of Trump doing a thumbs-up.
The person did not respond to questions about whether they knew Zhang or what she had been trying to do at Mar-a-Lago. 

Instead, they blocked the reporter from being able to contact him.

The Exiled Chinese Billionaire With a Mar-a-Lago Membership

By Scott Cendrowski

Guo Wengui, also known as Miles Kwok

If you missed the latest billionaire scandal in China, you could be forgiven.
The case of Guo Wengui, also known as Miles Kwok, the billionaire property developer of Beijing Zenith Holdings, has mostly been carried out in Chinese language sites and through Beijing's propaganda machine.
The only people to make sense of the disparate stories are keen observers of elite Chinese politics. Those include the English language newsletter writer Bill Bishop, who has chronicled the case over the last two days, and New York Times reporter Michael Forsythe.
Here's what is clear. 

It is always dangerous to be a billionaire in China, especially one in real estate. 

Local governments control the land, and graft almost always lurks behind the deals that turn real estate from public to private.
Guo made his money through real estate. 

He's lobbed corruption accusations at China's most powerful, and the government has returned the insults. 

This week China succeeded in getting Interpol to call for Guo's arrest.
The latest episode is a growing embarrassment for the Communist Party particularly because it questions whether Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign can truly take on the China Communist Party's endemic corruption. 

Guo's accusations of corruption climb to the highest level of Chinese politics.
Here's the basic rundown:
After accusing officials of corruption throughout his career—according to investigative reports in Chinese media—Guo has recently taken on a deputy minister of Public Security. 

Guo was scheduled to give a three-hour interview to Voice of America on Wednesday, during which he promised "a nuclear bomb of corruption allegations.”
But after an hour, the interview abruptly stopped. 

Chinese officials pressured Voice of America to cancel the interview, an official with the broadcaster told the New York Times.
Guo's staged his latest interviews from the U.S., where he arrived in 2015, reportedly after his ally, former spy chief Ma Jian, was detained in an anti-corruption case. 

In the U.S. he has joined Trump's Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago resort, a fact that could ratchet up China-U.S. diplomatic intrigue in his case.
Since then, Beijing has staged a counter attack. 

Stories discrediting Guo have flowed from Chinese state media outlets this week.
What follows now is unclear.
Guo appears to remain safe in the U.S. to send more accusations of corruption at Chinese officials, unlike Xiao Jianhua, a billionaire abducted by Chinese state security from Hong Kong across the Chinese border earlier this year. 

Xiao was known for helping China's powerful move their assets overseas, according to Willy Lam, a professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The latest drama is important in part because it involves high level officials. 

But it is also unfolding a few months before a once-every-five-years leadership change in the ruling Politburo Standing Committee, and it could change the calculus of filling five of the seven opening seats.

President Trump sets himself on collision course with China ahead of Xi meeting

The US president attacked trade relationship with Beijing and announced that his meeting with the Chinese dictator would be very difficult
By Benjamin Haas in Hong Kong

Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump are due to meet in Florida on April 6. 
Donald Trump has set himself on a collision course with the Chinese dictator, saying the first meeting between the two leaders would be “very difficult”.
Xi will travel to the US next week and will have his first face to face meeting with Trump at Mar-a-lago, the US president’s country club in Florida, from April 6 to 7.
But just hours after the trip was officially announced, Trump used Twitter to slam China for its trade imbalance with the US.
“The meeting next week with China will be a very difficult one in that we can no longer have massive trade deficits and job losses. American companies must be prepared to look at other alternatives,” Trump wrote in a pair of tweets.
Trump’s firm assertion is likely to cast a shadow over Xi’s visit, with US officials also criticising China over North Korea.
Chinese authorities have so far adopted a wait and see approach.

While Trump has deployed tough rhetoric, criticising China over its currency policy, trade imbalance with the US and military expansion, he has taken few concrete actions since assuming office.
Indeed China’s immediate response to Trump’s latest tweet was diplomatic, with vice foreign minister Zheng Zeguang telling reporters on Friday morning that “both sides look forward to a successful meeting so that a correct direction can be set for the growth of bilateral relations.”
Observers believe the economy and North Korea will be at the top of the agenda when the two leaders meet next week.
On the same day as Trump’s tweets, the US ambassador to the United Nations said China should do more to force North Korea to curb its nuclear program, amid reports of an imminent nuclear test.
“I know China says they’re worried about North Korea. I know China wants to see North Korea stop with the testing. Prove it. Prove it,” Nikki Haley said. 

“Look, can we change the way North Korea thinks? No. They’re not going to cave. China can, and that’s the part we want to look at.”
Trump previously slammed China for its perceived lack of diplomacy in dealing with North Korea.
“China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade, but won’t help with North Korea,” then president-elect Trump wrote in January.
In a further sign that Trump could complicate his meeting with Xi, the US commerce department announced it was launching a review over whether China should be considered a market economy.
The review could be completed before the meeting, and China has been lobbying for years saying it should be classified as a market economy under World Trade Organisation rules. 

The status would limit steps the US could take on imposing anti-dumping taxes on Chinese-made products.