Chinese academic convicted of acting as foreign agent in U.S.

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A Chinese academic was convicted on Tuesday of illegally acting as a foreign agent in the United States by collecting information about New York-based activists supporting democracy in China and sharing his findings with Beijing.

A jury found Wang Shujun guilty on four counts including acting as a foreign agent without notifying the U.S. attorney general and lying to U.S. authorities, following a weeklong trial in Brooklyn federal court.

Wang could face up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 9, 2025.

Federal prosecutors said Wang, a naturalized U.S. citizen, portrayed himself as a fierce opponent of the ruling Chinese Communist Party to gain the trust of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, advocates for Taiwanese independence and campaigners for Uyghur and Tibetan rights.

Prosecutors said Wang was actually spying on the activists and sharing his findings with four officials in China's Ministry of State Security (MSS), an intelligence service.

"The indictment could have been the plot of a spy novel, but the evidence is shockingly real," Breon Peace, the top federal prosecutor in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, said in a statement. "Wang was willing to betray those who respected and trusted him."

Wang, who emigrated to the United States in 1994, was arrested in March 2022.

Defense lawyer Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma said Wang spoke to the intelligence officials about the pro-democracy movement to win their support and promote social change, and was not acting as their agent.

Margulis-Ohnuma said he respected the jury's verdict and would request a sentence that spares Wang the "agony" of prison.

"We look forward to sentencing," Margulis-Ohnuma told reporters after the verdict. "He's a