Chinese Military Officer Arrested For Visa Fraud, Was Attempting To Leave LA With University Research

A Chinese scientific researcher with ties to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was arrested for visa fraud after he attempted to leave the Los Angeles International Airport for Tianjin, China, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Thursday (June 11).

U.S. Attorney David Anderson and the FBI confirmed in a joint statement that Xin Wang has been under federal custody since June 7. The DOJ said he had in his possession research from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and had shared them with his colleagues in the PLA.

Court documents showed Wang entered the United States on March 26, 2019, with a multiple entry J1 non-immigrant visa. Wang stated in his visa application of December, 2018, that he will be conducting research at the UCSF. He also indicated that he was an associate professor in medicine in the PLA from 2002 to 2016.

However, Wang is still employed and continued to receive compensation from the PLA as a 'Level 9' technician, corresponding to the rank of major, the South China Morning Post reported.

As per the complaint filed by FBI special agent Patrick Fogerty, the PLA official "stated that he intentionally made false statements about his military service in his visa application in order to increase the likelihood that he would receive his visa."

Officers at Los Angeles airport's Customs and Border Protection held Wang for questioning after they received information that he had been sharing his studies from the UCSF with his colleagues at the PLA. Some of the studies at the university laboratory have been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"Wang similarly told his supervising UCSF professor that he had duplicated some of the work of that professor at the lab in China," the federal official said in his statement. The Chinese military officer also sent layouts of the UCSF lab to replicate it in China.

The customs officers said Wang had wiped his WeChat messaging content before arriving at the airport.

Wang appeared before Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian at the Central District of California on Monday. He is scheduled to have a detention hearing on June 12. If convicted of visa fraud, Wang could face a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

The arrest comes as the FBI has been cracking down on the academic collaborations between U.S. and Chinese laboratories, especially those funded by the Chinese military. Congress also introduced the PLA Visa Security Act in May last year to prevent scientific experts sponsored by the Chinese government from entering the U.S. on student or research visas.