Speaker 1: Welcome to Spycraft, a podcast that tells gripping life and
death spy stories and the amazing devices and operations that
made them possible. Now let's get started.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you just don't know who you're working for. A
former New York Police sergeant was sentenced to eighteen months
in prison in a US case about China's pursuit of
critics abroad. Michael McMahon was convicted in twenty twenty three
of contributing to a transcontinental pressure campaign aimed at getting
a former Chinese official to leave the US and returned
to his home land. The tactics range from Facebook messages
to a threatening real world note on the man's door.
During an hour's long sentence, McMahon said he was unwittingly
used by Chinese operators when he took what he thought
was a routine PI job. I never thought for one
minute I was working for China. Yet now I've lost everything.
This is such a nightmare. He was among ten people
charged in the federal case, which spurred the first trial
stemming from US claims about China's decady Operation fox Hunt initiative.
Beijing says it's about bringing corrupt officials and other criminal
fugitives to justice Washington deems at an exercise and threatening
and harassing dissidents across borders. US District Judge Pamela Chen
said McMahon aided a campaign of transnational repression that harmed
the targeted man. Zuo, a former official in the city
of Wuhan, left China in twenty ten. Authorities there have
accused Zo and his wife of bribery, which they deny.
His wife's testified that he was unjustly targeted for rankling
the Chinese power structure. China doesn't have an extradition treaty
with the US, so China couldn't legally force Zu to return,
but he was repeatedly and insidiously pressed to return. At
one point, his octagenarian father was abruptly flown in from
China to press him to go back. Later, a threatening
no was taped to his door, telling him to go
to prison in China to ensure his families well be
The Brooklyn based you As attorney said in a statement
that the ex officer Win Rogan dishonorably engage in his
scheme at the direction of the People's Republic of China,
so McMahon shook his head in the charges against him.
But what we're gonna do now is actually look at
Operation fox Hunt and see what this was all about.
Because whether or not he really knew or didn't know,
I'm assuming he probably knew. It's gonna be kind of
hard to believe he didn't know what he was up to.
But maybe he really didn't. It doesn't matter anymore, as
we know, the law doesn't care about ignorance in that sense.
Operation fox Hun is a COVID global operation launched by
the Chinese Guy in June twourds in twenty fourteen, officially
aimed at combating corruption by targeting Chinese nationals abroad suspected
of economic crimes, bribery and embezzlement, but as part of
Chinese Communist Party Broader anti corruption campaign, and works alongside
what they call Operation Skynet, which focuses on restricting financial
flows and recovering illicit assets. Fox Hunt has reportedly led
to the repatriation of over nine thousand people in over
one hundred and twenty countries, recovering almost seven billion in assets.
Notable successes include the twenty fifteen extradition of a woman
named Zang from Italy, marking Europe's first such extradition of
China for financial crimes and the repatriation of seven hundred
people in a six month period. However, the operation is
highly controversial, including US officials and human rights groups argues
that serves as a tool for political repression and targeting dissidents.
Tactics have allegedly included harassment, stocking, kidnapping, and coercion. For example,
the FBI director Christopher Ray cited cases where targets were
told to return to China commit suicide, with family members
arrested for leverage. The US has accused China conducting these
operations illegally on forward soil, violating sovereignty and international norms.
In October twenty twenty, the FBI arres did five individuals
and charged three others for acting as the illegal agents
of China in a fox Hunt related case involving intimidation
of a New Jersey resident. In twenty twenty three, three men,
including an American PI, were convicted in the US trial
for stalking and acting as illegal agents to pressure former
Chinese official to return. Fox Hunt through police agreements with
others like France, have raised concerns from unnotified bring paid creations.
China defends, of course fox and is a legitimate anti
corruption effort, denying accusations of transnational repression. However, evidence from
US court cases and reports by groups like Safeguard Defenders
highlight its extra legal methods, including the use of clandestine visits,
honey tramps, and malware to target YEP to track the targets.
The term fox hunt also appears in an unrelated context,
like a twenty twenty five Chinese action film, So there's
your fun part fox Hunt. Just in case you look
it up. There is a movie, So we don't want
you to get confused, but it's not about that. Hopefully
that'll be it for now. We'll talk to you so