Chinese and U.S. flags flutter near The Bund, before U.S. trade delegation meet their Chinese counterparts for talks in Shanghai, China July 30, 2019.
Chinese and U.S. flags flutter near The Bund, before U.S. trade delegation meet their Chinese counterparts for talks in Shanghai, China July 30, 2019. Reuters / Aly Song

U.S. prosecutors have accused Chinese government agents of trying to spy on and intimidate dissidents living in the United States, including a congressional candidate, according to court documents unsealed on Wednesday.

At a news conference convened to detail the accusations in a series of criminal cases, U.S. Justice Department official Matthew Olsen cited what he called an alarming rise in "transnational repression" by authoritarian governments.

"We will not tolerate such repression here when it violates our laws," Olsen said.

In one of the cases, federal prosecutors said a Chinese government agent asked a U.S.-based private investigator to help manufacture a political scandal that would undermine a U.S. congressional candidate.

The candidate was not identified in court documents, but fits the description of Xiong Yan, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to run for a U.S. House of Representatives seat representing the eastern part of New York's Long Island. The seat is held by Republican Lee Zeldin, who opted to run for governor rather than seek reelection.

In another case, Chinese government agents are accused of spying on employees of an unidentified human rights non-governmental organization based in Washington.

In a third case, first reported by CNBC, Chinese government agents are accused of trying to intimidate Arthur Liu, a lawyer and political activist in San Francisco. Liu is the father of professional figure skater Alysa Liu, who competed for the U.S. team in the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

"These charges show that both election interference and malign foreign influence remain top priorities for the DOJ," said Brandon Van Grack, a former Justice Department lawyer now at Morrison & Foerster who is not involved in the cases.

Last month the Justice Department ended a program focused on fighting Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft at universities, shifting to address threats from a broader array of hostile nations.

Critics said that initiative, put in place during former President Donald Trump's administration, amounted to racial profiling and that it created a culture of fear that has chilled scientific research.