President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of two convicted Chinese spies and a pedophile just before the Thanksgiving holiday in November. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), clemency was granted to Yanjun Xu, who was sentenced in 2022 to 240 months in prison for espionage on behalf of China; Ji Chaoqun, who was sentenced in 2023 to 96 months in prison for conspiracy to defraud the United States and acting as an unregistered foreign agent; and Shanlin Jin, sentenced to 97 months in 2022 for possession of child pornography.
The warrants of clemency for the three individuals do not provide any detail as to why their sentences were commuted and subsequently released from prison. However, the Biden White House has stated that the men were part of a prisoner exchange with the People’s Republic of China. As a condition of their clemency, all three must leave the U.S.
TWO SPIES AND A PEDO.
In 2022, Yanjun Xu, a Chinese government intelligence officer, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being extradited to the U.S. As deputy division director at the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), Xu attempted to illegally obtain U.S. aviation industry trade secrets by using aliases and front companies to lure industry experts to China under the pretense they’d be speaking at a university. After the targets arrived in China, Xu and other MSS operatives would break into their hotel rooms and hack their electronic devices.
Meanwhile, Ji Chaoqun was sentenced to eight years for acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the People’s Republic of China. Ji assisted Xu’s espionage operation and attempted to recruit other Chinese nationals in the American aviation industry to spy for China.
The final clemency recipient, Shanlin Jin, is unconnected to the espionage plot. Arrested on possession of child pornography, Jin’s inclusion in the exchange appears to be because of his family’s influence in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
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