A British man is accused of spying on allegedly having tried to smuggle “sensitive American military technology” to China.
The US Department of Justice said that John Miller, who is from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, is charged with intergovernmental persecution and conspiracy to commit intergovernmental persecution and conspiracy, smuggling and violations of the arms export control law.
The Ministry of Justice added that the United States is trying to extradite Mr Miller from Serbia with his co-accused, Cui Guanghai, 43, from China.
The most serious offense they are accused of – violation of the arms export control law – has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
According to the mail on Sunday, a neighbor said Miller, 63, often traveled to the Far East to work.
The court’s documents released by the US lawyer’s office said the couple “requested the purchase of US defense articles, including missiles, air defense radar, drones and cryptographic units with affiliated crypto -cowarding keys for illegal exports from the United States to the People’s Republic China”.
The couple reportedly discussed ways to export a cryptographic device from the United States to China, including hiding the device in a blender and sending the device first to Hong Kong.
The Court’s documents said they paid about $ 10,000 (£ 7,400) as a deposit for the cryptographic unit via a cure in the US and a thread transfer to a US bank account.
It is said that the two men have also been part of a plot to prevent a person who had been critical of China’s President Xi Jinping from protesting his performance at Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November 2023.
In the weeks leading up to the APEC summit, they are accused of coordinating a intermediate scheme of conducting monitoring on the victim by installing a tracking device on his car and cutting its tire.
Another offense relates to the spring of this year when the dissentter announced that he was planning to publish an online VideoFeed depicting two new artistic statues of Mr Xi and his wife.
In connection with these reasons, the defendants are said to have paid two other persons approx. $ 36,500 (£ 27,010) to convince the victim to refrain from the online view of the statues. These two people were affiliated and acted in the direction of the FBI.
Deputy Judicial Attorney Todd Blanche said: “As allegedly targeted the defendant an American resident to exert his constitutional right to freedom of expression and conspired to traffic -sensitive American military technology to the Chinese regime.
“This is an obvious attack on both our national security and our democratic values. This Ministry of Justice will not tolerate foreign oppression on American soil, nor will we allow hostile nations to infiltrate or exploit our defense systems.
“We will act resolutely to postpone and run these threats wherever they show up.”
US lawyer Bill Essayli, for the central district of California, said: “The indictment claims that Chinese foreign actors targeted a victim in our nation because he criticized the Chinese government and its president.
“My office will continue to use all available legal methods to keep responsible foreign nationals participating in criminal activity on our land.”
Akil Davis, the Assistant Director responsible for the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said: “The FBI will not tolerate transnational oppression aimed at those in the United States who express disagreement on foreign leaders.
“Both defendants face serious persecution costs in Los Angeles, and my office intends to keep them responsible for bullying a victim, a critic of China (People’s Republic of China) and targeting him with violence.”
If convicted Mr Miller could also face the maximum sanctions of five years in prison for conspiracy, five years in prison for intergovernmental persecution and 10 years in prison for smuggling.