In a recent prisoner exchange between the United States and China, President Biden granted clemency to two Chinese spies and a relative of a high-ranking Chinese Communist Party member. The three individuals, Yanjun Xu, Ji Chaoqun, and Shanlin Jin, were convicted of espionage and possession of child pornography, respectively. The pardons were made public last Thursday.
Yanjun Xu and Ji Chaoqun were both convicted of espionage, while Shanlin Jin was found guilty of possessing over 47,000 images of child pornography. Jin was a doctoral student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 2021 when he was convicted. The clemencies, signed by President Biden, were dated November 22.
Xu was arrested in Belgium on espionage charges and extradited to the US, where he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for attempting to steal aerospace and satellite secrets. Chaoqun, who collaborated with Xu and China’s Ministry of State Security, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison for spying on US tech companies.
Five days after the pardons, on November 27, the Chinese government released three Americans who were serving prison sentences in China. The released Americans included Mark Swidan, a Texas businessman arrested in 2012 on drug-related charges; Kai Li, held since 2016 on espionage charges; and John Leung, sentenced to life in prison on spying charges in 2023.
The pardons come amid increased scrutiny of alleged Chinese spies in the US. Federal authorities in New York have been cracking down on suspected Chinese spies in state and local governments, and a Congressional committee has criticized the Department of Justice for its perceived lack of enforcement against Chinese espionage.
Xu was the first Chinese government intelligence officer to be extradited to the US to stand trial for targeting US aviation companies to steal technology. He was convicted by a federal jury in 2021 on conspiracy to commit economic espionage and conspiracy to commit trade theft, among other charges. Xu was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a federal court in Cincinnati a year later.
Court documents reveal that Xu began targeting US companies, including GE Aviation, in 2013, using aliases, front companies, and universities to deceive employees at aviation companies and collect information. Xu also worked with other Chinese agents to hack computers in hotel rooms while his “guests” — aviation company employees — were taken to dinner.
In a related case, Ji Chaoqun was found guilty of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government, among other espionage charges, and sentenced to eight years in prison last year. Ji, who lived in Chicago, worked at the direction of intelligence officers in the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security, a department within MSS. Xu assigned him to recruit other spies for the operation to obtain access to advanced aerospace and satellites being developed by companies in the US.