On Wednesday, the FBI warned that China and Iran are becoming bolder in their attempts to silence American dissidents and influence U.S. policy.
FBI counterintelligence agents asked victims to come forward at a news conference about transnational repression, saying the bureau is tracking an increasing trend of foreign authoritarian regimes breaking U.S. laws to frighten communities.
The officials said that federal prosecutors had initiated many criminal charges against governments for hiring private detectives to surveil dissidents.
“A lot of these are new tactics and lines that are being crossed that we have not seen China and Iran do on U.S. soil in previous investigations,” one FBI counterintelligence official said. As a result, the FBI wanted to warn private investigators and state and local law enforcement about similar tendencies.
Officials said transnational repression operations had multiple purposes, including influencing U.S. policies through “malign influence tactics.”
“We’ve really seen an inflection point in the tactics and tools, and the level of risk and threat that have changed over the past few years,” another FBI counterintelligence official said.
The call with reporters on Wednesday came two days after federal agents arrested two New York residents for allegedly operating a Chinese “secret police station” in Manhattan’s Chinatown district. Prosecutors said the arrests were part of a broader U.S. government crackdown on Beijing’s alleged targeting of dissidents.
In recent months, Europe-based human rights NGO Safeguard Defenders has published findings on dozens of Chinese police “service stations” in major cities like New York and Los Angeles.
FBI authorities will not discuss the New York case or any ongoing investigations.
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