By Nate Raymond
BOSTON (Reuters) -A jury found a Boston man not guilty on Monday of U.S. charges that he acted as an unlawful agent of China’s government by supplying officials information about individuals, dissidents and groups in the local Chinese community.
Litang Liang, 65, was acquitted in federal court of charges that he acted as an unregistered Chinese agent in a case brought in 2023 that U.S. authorities had portrayed as part of their commitment to counter efforts by China’s government to silence its critics abroad.
Liang, a China-born U.S. citizen, had denied the charges and pleaded not guilty. His lawyer during the trial called the charges “ridiculous” and called them an effort to chill the free speech of a local community activist who advocated for the “reunification” of democratically governed Taiwan with mainland China – a view in harmony with China’s leaders.
“Justice has finally arrived,” Liang told reporters through a translator following the verdict.
U.S. Attorney Leah Foley, whose office pursued the case, said in a statement that while prosecutors “respect the jury’s decision, we are disappointed in (Monday’s) verdict.”
Liang had worked at a hotel and for years had been an active member in his union as well as a community organizer and activist in the Chinese-American community in Boston, according to his lawyer, Derege Demissie.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Kistner told jurors on Friday during closing arguments in the case that China’s government sought out Liang because it “wanted someone already involved in the community who knew the people who were there.”
Prosecutors said Liang from 2018 to 2022 provided Chinese officials with information on individuals and shared details about dissents and groups with pro-Taiwan leanings.
Prosecutors said that in 2018, after traveling to Beijing for meetings with an arm of the Chinese Communist Party, Liang founded the New England Alliance for the Peaceful Unification of China, which focused on promoting China’s goals with Taiwan.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory. Taiwan rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
Prosecutors said Liang, also at the direction of Chinese officials, in 2019 organized a counter-demonstration against pro-democracy protesters, and in 2022 provided an official with a Chinese agency tasked with investigating political dissents information on two potential local recruits.
Demissie in his closing argument to the jury countered that Liang made no secret of his activism and that his prosecution infringed Liang’s right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
“This case would have meant nothing if it did not involve China,” Demissie said. “That’s what this is about. And it had the purpose of scaring people, and it achieved that purpose.”
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham)
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