BEIJING -- China on Monday dismissed a warning issued by President Barack Obama's administration about the presence of Chinese government agents operating secretly in the United States and accused Washington of undermining Beijing's crackdown on corruption, according to the state media.
The diplomatic warning from Washington had alleged that Chinese security agents were working covertly in the U.S. to pressure Chinese suspected of economic crimes into returning home. That would constitute a violation of U.S. law, which requires foreign agents to first obtain permission from the attorney general.
The agents are operating covertly in the United States as part of Operation Fox Hunt, the Chinese government's global campaign to repatriate Chinese fugitives and recover purportedly ill-gotten gains, U.S. officials said.
Responding to an article published Sunday by The New York Times, China's official Xinhua news agency Monday called the U.S. order for Chinese agents to leave a "regrettable move" and accused the Obama administration of breaking law enforcement cooperation agreements.
"The Obama administration should show sincerity in anti-corruption cooperation with China and stop parochial calculations," the Xinhua article said, adding that "some analysts even say that the United States is reluctant to repatriate those corrupt officials for the sake of their money of course."
U.S. officials say they have proof that Chinese agents illegally operate in America and use threats and other forms of harassment against targets.
China and the U.S. are already at odds over a variety of issues, including the recent cybertheft of millions of government personnel files, which U.S. officials believe was directed by China, and the devaluation of the Chinese currency.
The U.S. and China do not have a formal extradition agreement, largely because of U.S. concerns about the lack of due process and judicial independence under the governing Communist Party, as well as the use of torture by Chinese authorities to extract confessions.
But in April, the Department of Homeland Security worked out a new arrangement with China's Ministry of Public Security, which oversees the Fox Hunt campaign, to assist Beijing's efforts to prosecute economic fugitives according to U.S. law. U.S. officials, however, say China has so far failed to provide evidence against those fugitives.
According to Chinese news reports, the Ministry of Public Security has sent more than 70 teams of Fox Hunt agents abroad to persuade fugitives to return home or to recapture them in cooperation with foreign law enforcement agencies. Yet Liu Dong, a director of the Fox Hunt campaign, said in a video broadcast on the official China Central Television last year that "whether or not there is an agreement in place, as long as there is information that there is a criminal suspect, we will chase them over there, we will take our work to them, anywhere."
Chinese security agents had been trying to hunt down Ling Wancheng, a politically connected businessman who fled to the U.S. last year, one American official said.
Neither the Public Security Ministry nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to questions about the warning from Washington. Instead, the only official response came from Xinhua.
Information for this article was contributed by Adam Wu of The New York Times.
A Section on 08/18/2015