Americans in the crosshairs of China’s spy game – By Bernd Debusmann Jr (BBC News) / July 9, 2022
As a long-time dissident and California-based opponent of the Chinese government, Arthur Liu – the father of US Olympic figure skater Alyssa Liu – was not particularly surprised when a phone call came from the FBI.
“They told me that the Chinese government had sent spies over to the Bay Area to gather me and my daughter’s passport information,” he told the BBC. “I wouldn’t say I was shocked. But I thought to myself, ‘wow’ – they’re taking this very seriously.”
At first, Mr Liu didn’t make the connection: A “fishy” phone call from a man claiming to be from the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, claiming to be conducting a “preparedness check” ahead of his daughter’s trip to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022.
“I didn’t completely realise that it was from someone other than the Olympic committee,” Mr Liu recalled. “I just decided to do the right thing and not give up any information. That’s just not how we normally submit passports.”
CONTINUE > https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62100402
