Five Chinese charged in Michigan for covering up a nightly military visit

Von WOM

US authorities have charged five Chinese citizens who are suspected of acting lies and wanting to blur their traces. This happened for more than a year after they were confronted in Michigan near a remote military stand, where thousands of people had gathered for the summer exercise.

indictment against five students

The five people who were students at the Michigan University at the time of the incidents were not charged for the events in Camp Grayling in August 2023. Rather, they are accused of incorrect information to the investigators and the conspiracy for deleting photos of their mobile phones, as the criminal complaint was submitted to the Federal Supreme Court, means.

concerns about security and defense

In the court document submitted on Tuesday, the FBI pointed out that there have already been cases in which Chinese students took photos of important defense locations in the United States. However, no information about the whereabouts of the five men was found in the document.

Investigations and traceability

"The accused are not in custody. If you come into contact with US authorities, you will be arrested and have to face these charges," said Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the US lawyer office in Detroit, on Wednesday.

encounter with the National Guard

In the summer of 2023, the five men were confronted by a Sergeant Major of the Utah National Guard after midnight near a lake. One of them said: "We are media representatives" before collecting their belongings and agreed to leave the area, according to the FBI.

trips and false explanations

The FBI discovered that the men had booked a room a week before they meet the National Guard with a nearby motel. Four months later, one of the men was interviewed by border officials at Detroit Airport before traveling to South Korea and China. He stated that he and the others had taken a trip to North Michigan to observe shooting stars, according to the FBI.

evidence and connections

A review of his external hard drive showed two pictures of military vehicles that were taken in the same night as the encounter with the National Guard Officer. The other four men were interviewed last March after they had landed in Chicago with a flight from Iceland. They confirmed that they were in North Michigan in August 2023, however, claimed that it was only to observe a meteorite rain, according to the FBI.

Communication via Wechat

The men had communicated about Wechat about the deletion of photos from their cameras and cell phones last December, the investigators report. The FBI found that all five men had graduated from the Michigan University in the past spring. They were part of a common program between the university and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China.

former incidents with Chinese citizens

In 2020, two Chinese citizens who wanted to make a master at the University of Michigan were sentenced to prison for prison because they had illegally taken photos of locations at a naval school in Key West, Florida.