The alleged chief of a secret Chinese language authorities “police station” housed in a nondescript Manhattan constructing was urged to assist monitor a distinguished pro-Democracy dissident, a jury heard this week.
“Simply assist me confirm if this individual exists,” wrote Liu Rongyan, a safety officer from China’s Fujian Province, to “Harry” Lu Jianwang, in accordance with proof revealed at Lu’s ongoing Brooklyn federal court docket trial.
The missive concerned Xu Jie, a longtime critic of China’s authorities who fled the nation in 2013.
“A pal is searching for him for a private matter,” Rongyan added — punctuating her textual content with a sheepish grin emoji — in a March 2022 message on Chinese language messaging platform WeChat.
Lu, the 64-year-old head of the America Changle Affiliation, which advocates for immigrants hailing from China’s Fujian Province, forwarded Rongyan’s request to Keith Cheng, the chief of a separate Huge Apple-based Fujian group, trial proof confirmed.
Jurors didn’t see any proof through the one-week-trial about what particulars Jie Lu might or might not have later supplied to Rongyan, his alleged Chinese language authorities handler.
Trial proof largely confirmed that the “station,” the place the FBI found a handful of laptop screens and a ping-pong desk lined in a purple tablecloth, helped Fujian natives renew their Chinese language driver’s licenses remotely — which Lu’s lawyer referred to as innocuous and never a federal crime.
“If Harry Lu is an ‘agent,’ he’s the worst agent ever,” his lawyer John Carman instructed the jury in his closing assertion Tuesday morning.
Lu, a Bronx resident and naturalized US citizen, cooly noticed closing statements from the protection desk, the place he sat in a darkish go well with with an American flag pin affixed to its lapel.
However Jie — who grew to become a critic of the Beijing regime after the nation’s brutal 1989 Tiananmen Sq. bloodbath of its protesting residents — took the stand and described being harassed close to his Pomona, Calif., residence by alleged Chinese language brokers each earlier than and after Lu obtained the texts.
“I love a rustic that has the separation of energy,” mentioned Jie, who now works as a Lyft driver and shoots YouTube movies criticizing China’s authorities, to jurors Monday.
“Residing in America, a minimum of now we have the regulation as a backside line to guard us,” Jie mentioned.
Lu faces as much as 5 years in jail if convicted of illegally appearing as a Chinese language agent by establishing the alleged spy web site inside a glass-windowed six-story constructing at 107 East Broadway.
Prosecutors at one level dramatically unfurled for jurors a blue banner recovered from the location that declared it was a “Fuzhou Police Abroad Service Station.”
However Carman insisted to the jury, “This isn’t spy time. This isn’t worldwide espionage. This case is about license renewal.”
The jury will begin deliberating within the case Wednesday morning.
