Mistrial of UT associate professor over false spying accusation latest example of US intelligence agencies' political manipulation, shattered credibility: FM

Global Times

By Global Times Published: Jun 22, 2021 05:25 PM

The declared mistrial of Hu Anming, a Chinese national and former associate professor at the University of Tennessee, due to a failed accusation of espionage, has exposed the consistent tactics used by US intelligence agencies in conducting investigations based on presumption of guilt, and it is also another example of their political manipulation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday.

Media reported that FBI Agent Kujtim Sadiku admitted in an ongoing trial in Knoxville that federal agents falsely accused Hu, 52, of being a Chinese spy and used false information to put him on the federal no-fly list.

Some US media, including the Washington Post, said the case led to renewed criticism from civil rights advocates over a Trump-era Justice Department program targeting China's economic espionage, and pointed out that Hu, who joined the University of Tennessee in 2013, was the first academic to stand trial under the Justice Department's "China Initiative."

For a long time, American intelligence agencies have used all means possible to achieve specific political goals, and their credibility has long been smashed, said Zhao during a routine press conference.

Former US secretary of state and CIA director Mike Pompeo's quote: "We lied, we cheated, we stole" is the true nature and black sign of the US agencies, Zhao said.

They used a tube filled with suspected laundry detergent as evidence to accuse Iraq of possession of weapons of mass destruction, and sent spies to pretend to be staff members of the UN hepatitis B vaccine project to collect DNA from Pakistani citizens. They engaged in large-scale surveillance and steal secrets, even from their European allies. Through the Robin Project, they bought off media and institutions, bribed and manipulated journalists from other countries by various means to force them to become spies, Zhao added.

"The US should forsake its Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice, cease political manipulation and stop disturbing and sabotaging normal exchanges and cooperation between China and the US in fields including science and technology," the spokesperson said.