Ping Li, Conspiring to Act as Agent of PRC Government, Florida 2023

Tampa FL – Ping Li, 59, of Wesley Chapel, Florida, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to act as an agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) without notification to the Attorney General.

According to the plea agreement and other court filings, the PRC’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) is in charge of civilian intelligence collection for the PRC. The MSS often uses "cooperative contacts" located in countries outside of the PRC in furtherance of their intelligence goals, which include obtaining information concerning foreign corporate or industrial matters, foreign politicians or intelligence officers and information concerning PRC political dissidents residing in those countries.

Li was a United States citizen who immigrated to the United States from the PRC. At various times, Li worked for a major U.S. telecommunications company and an international information technology company.

Li admitted that, from at least as early as 2012, he served as a cooperative contact working at the direction of officers of the MSS to obtain information of interest to the PRC government. Li obtained a wide variety of information at the request of the MSS, including information concerning Chinese dissidents and pro-democracy advocates, members of the Falun Gong religious movement and U.S.-based non-governmental organizations, and reported that information to the MSS.

For example, in August 2012, an MSS officer requested that Li provide information about practitioners of Falun Gong and pro-democracy advocates in the United States. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a religious movement that originated in the PRC in the 1990s. Falun Gong is not one of the five religions formally recognized by the PRC government, and it has been banned since 1999. Its adherents both in China and abroad are of particular interest to the PRC government because of Falun Gong’s advocacy of ideas deemed subversive to the PRC government.

Li’s guilty plea is a reminder of the ongoing threat posed by foreign agents operating in our midst. The FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue to work tirelessly to identify and disrupt these threats, and bring those responsible to justice.

Ping Li faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for [date].

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