912 Special Project Working Group
The alleged purpose of the PRC’s elite task force — which was working as a troll farm — was to attack Chinese residents who exercised their free speech in the U.S. in a manner that China disfavored and to sow division in this country.
On Monday April 17, 2023, an unsealed complaint revealed that 34 officers of the national police of the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security were charged with harassing Chinese nationals throughout the New York metropolitan area, including in Queens and Long Island, according to an affidavit issued by a Brooklyn federal court.
The alleged purpose of the PRC’s elite task force — which was working as a troll farm — was to attack Chinese residents who exercised their free speech in the U.S. in a manner that China disfavored and to sow division in this country, according to U.S. Attorney Breon Peace of the Eastern District of New York.
The task force was called the 912 Special Project Working Group and allegedly used social media platforms like Twitter to spread propaganda for the PRC’s Chinese Communist Party by using thousands of false names to promote the CCP and the PRC in a positive light, while disrupting a videoconference commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests and issuing death threats to pro-democracy nationals on social media, according to David Sundberg, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Division.
“In the U.S., the freedom of speech is a cornerstone of our democracy, and the FBI will work tirelessly to defend everyone’s freedom of right to speak freely without fear of retribution from the CCP,” Sundberg said in a statement. “These complex investigations revealed an MPS-wide effort to repress individuals by using the U.S. communications platform and fake social media accounts to sensor political and religious speech.”
The 912 Special Project Working Group is alleged to have also worked to sow division in the U.S. via online platforms about U.S. law enforcement’s involvement in issues from George Floyd’s death to Covid-19 to the war in Ukraine, according to the complaint.
From 2016 to 2022, people claiming to live in Germany, New York, Georgia and Florida allegedly have used approximately 50 laptops and 50 iPhones to go online with false identities on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Hong Kong discussion forums claiming to be a U.S. military officer supportive of the PRC and its policies, according to FBI agent Joseph Hugdahl.
“I have personally reviewed each of the electronic communications, including emails and chat messages,” Hugdahl said in a sworn affidavit.
Two of the suspects among the 34 were arrested on April 17, according to the Department of Justice. Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx and Chen Jinping, 59, of Manhattan, were arrested in their homes and charged with conspiring to act as agents of the PRC government, obstructing justice by destroying evidence of their communications with an MPS official and establishing an overseas police station in Manhattan on behalf of the MPS. While the remaining suspects have been identified, they remain at large throughout China. The government’s Office of National Security and Cybercrime Section is staying on top of the case. If convicted, the defendants face 20 years in prison.
People who believe they may have been victims of stalking, intimidation or assault by a foreign government may visit http://www.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/transnational-repression.
References
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Most Wanted, Xinjiang Jim, Conspiracy to Commit Interstate Harassment; Unlawful Conspiracy to Transfer Means of Identification
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/counterintelligence/xinjiang-jin