The Justice Department said it will file suits to revoke the naturalized citizenship of people convicted of spying for China. Filing a suit does not by itself revoke citizenship; a court must decide.
The US Justice Department said it will pursue suits to revoke US citizenship from people convicted over espionage activity for China. The Liberty Times described it as the largest batch of such suits under the Trump administration.
광고 문의 · 300×250One representative case is that of Wei Jinchao. Convicted of espionage in August 2025 and sentenced to 16 years and 8 months, he is said to have leaked sensitive naval information while serving aboard the USS Essex and received more than $12,000. The Justice Department says he hid his crimes when he was naturalized in May 2022.
Another is that of Li Ping, sentenced to four years in November 2024. He was charged with working from 2012 on instructions from China's Ministry of State Security, providing information on dissidents and democracy advocates and leaking his employer's internal information.
Legal basis and limits
US law allows revoking naturalization obtained by illegal means, by concealing material facts or by willful misrepresentation. But filing a suit does not itself remove citizenship, and a court must decide.
The case of a Chinese-American woman arrested by the FBI at Los Angeles International Airport on Oct. 4, before this announcement, is separate and is not on the denaturalization list. She is accused of surveilling relatives of Taiwanese government officials in Seattle.
A third view
Punishing espionage and maintaining trust in immigrant communities are issues to consider together. The Chinese government has consistently denied such allegations, and in the Chinese-American community some worry that law enforcement could shift from individual suspicion to prejudice about origin. There is little disagreement that judging by the facts of each case is what matters.
