Chinese nationals indicted after spying on Michigan military base and lying to FBI

Five Chinese nationals have been charged after they were caught spying on Camp Grayling, a National Guard training center in Grayling, Michigan, and lying to cover their tracks.

The Chinese nationals were in the country legally as students at the University of Michigan as part of a joint program with Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, and have since graduated.

“This case shows once again that CCP (Chinese Communist Party) espionage can take place anywhere in America and that we must be vigilant,” said House CCP Committee Chairman John Moolenaar (Mich.).

“All our country’s universities should close their joint institutes with Chinese universities and implement stricter guardrails for emerging technology research. American universities must realize that they are a target for espionage and protect the critical taxpayer-funded research they conduct,” he added.

The five Chinese nationals, Zhekai Xu, Renxiang Guan, Haoming Zhu, Jingzhe Tao and Yi Liang, were caught spying on the base last August during a large-scale joint National Guard training operation with the Taiwanese military.

Initially, they were not charged and claimed to be media outlets photographing a meteor shower. They claimed they did not know there were military vehicles in the area and that they thought they were at a campsite.

That turned out to be a lie.

Researchers were able to retrieve some images of military vehicles from Guan’s external hard drive, which showed that the Chinese national spies were more interested in photographing US military equipment than atmospheric phenomena.

The photos were taken just hours before the Chinese nationals were discovered by a sergeant major taking photos at the base with headlights.

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The men are now accused of lying to law enforcement investigators and attempting to conceal the evidence by deleting incriminating photos.

The Chinese nationals remain at large as the new charges were filed more than a year after their arrest and release.

“The suspects are not in custody. Should they come into contact with U.S. authorities, they will be arrested and face these charges,” said spokeswoman Gina Balaya of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit.

The men graduated from the University of Michigan in May and have reportedly returned to China, making it extremely unlikely that they will ever face the charges leveled against them.

Michigan isn’t the only place where U.S. officials have raised concerns about Chinese nationals potentially spying on sensitive infrastructure and military assets.

Officials in Texas have raised alarms in recent years about a troubling pattern of Chinese nationals buying up land near military installations.

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Here in Maine, the Maine Wire’s exclusive investigative reporting has revealed that Asian transnational criminal organizations have purchased hundreds of properties across Maine, including properties near a U.S. Army facility in Dexter and a Maine National Guard training facility in Woodville.

U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) has raised the potential national security implications of Chinese organized crime operations in Maine with various federal intelligence community officials on several occasions.

However, to date, very little has been done at the state or federal level to address Chinese-controlled properties near military facilities and sensitive infrastructure.