Bay Area figure skating champion Alysa Liu and her family in Richmond were among those targeted in a spying operation that the Justice Department alleges was ordered by the Chinese government.
Arthur Liu told The Associated Press he had been contacted by the FBI last October, and warned about the scheme just as his 16-year-old daughter was preparing for the Beijing Winter Olympics. The father said he did not tell his daughter about the issue so as not to scare her or distract her from the competition.Arthur Liu said he took a stand against China’s bullying by allowing his daughter to compete at the recent Olympic Winter Games, where she placed 7th in the women’s event.
“They are probably just trying to intimidate us, to … in a way threaten us not to say anything, to cause trouble to them and say anything political or related to human rights violations in China,” Arthur Liu said. “I had concerns about her safety. The U.S. government did a good job protecting her.”“We believed Alysa had a very good chance of making the Olympic Team and truly were very scared,” he said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said he was “not aware of the specifics” surrounding the allegations, but said China is “firmly opposed to the U.S. slandering by making an issue of this out of thin air.”“China always asks Chinese citizens to abide by the laws and regulations of host countries, and we would never ask our citizens to engage in activities that violate local laws,” Zhao told reporters at a daily briefing Thursday.
The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. A spokesman for U.S. Figure Skating deferred comment to Team USA.
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