Operation Fox Hunt trial: Retired NYPD sergeant helped Chinese spies stalk and threaten dissidents

A former NYPD sergeant is accused of helping Chinese spies embedded in New York and New Jersey track down dissidents on behalf of their government and threaten to harm their families unless they returned to the ‘homeland’ to go to prison as part of a program dubbed Operation Fox Hunt.

Michael McMahon is on trial in New York City along with Zhu Yong and Zheng Congying as acting as Chinese agents to track down dissidents who had fled and intimidate them into returning.

The trial began today with opening statements from US federal prosecutors. 

McMahon was working as a private investigator after retiring from the NYPD when he was contracted by the Chinese government to track down victim Xu Jin and intimidate him, according to prosecutors. 

Michael McMahon is on trial in New York City along with Zhu Yong and  Zhen Congying as acting as Chinese agents to track down dissidents who had fled and intimidate them into returning. He is shown arriving at court today with his wife

Zhu Yong returns to Brooklyn Federal Court for a trial on Operation Fox Hunt in New York on May 31, 2023

In 2018, Zheng Congying traveled to the man’s house in New Jersey and taped a note on his door which read: ‘If you are willing to go back to the homeland and spend 10 years in prison, your wife and children will be safe and well.’ 

All three deny the charges and claim they had no idea they were working for the Chinese government.

McMahon claimed he thought he was working for a Chinese construction company and says the fact that he alerted the authorities to his work proves it.

In opening statements before a federal jury, McMahon’s lawyer, Lawrence Lustberg, said: ‘If he’s secretly acting on behalf of the Chinese government, is he going to call the cops and tell them?

‘He had no idea, none… that he was working for China.’ 

Prosecutor Irisa Chen said McMahon searched the target’s name on the internet and even met a Chinese official during the course of his work, suggesting he saw through the ‘vague’ cover story.

‘McMahon knew this was not the true reason. He looked the other way.’ 

In 2018, Zheng Congying traveled to the man’s house in New Jersey and taped a note on his door

The note read: ‘If you are willing to go back to the homeland and spend 10 years in prison, your wife and children will be safe and well’

Some of the spy gear that was found in one of the agent’s luggage, including night vision goggles

Lawyers for Zhu and Zheng, both Chinese citizens and New York City residents, also said their clients did not know they were working for China’s government

Xu had directed the municipal development division of the Chinese city of Wuhan before being charged with taking millions of dollars in bribes, according to a 2021 ProPublica investigation.

In her opening statement, Chen did not refer to Xu by name, referring to him only as a former Chinese government official who came to the United States in 2010 after falling out of favor with the ruling Chinese Communist Party. China’s government then put out an international notice for his arrest, Chen said.

Xu was identified by name by the first witness, his sister-in-law Liu Yan. She testified that at two separate points in 2016, individuals she did not know came to her Short Hills, New Jersey home and told her that Xu should go back to China.

‘I felt very scared,’ she said.

Then, in early 2017, Xu’s elderly father, who lived in China and did not know her U.S. address, showed up unannounced at Liu’s home and told her he had a “task” to persuade Xu to go back to China.

Chen said in her opening statement Xu’s father was being used as “bait.”

‘I cannot believe the law enforcement of China’s government was using an elderly man to meet their goal,’ Liu testified.