Washington/UNI: A Chinese researcher accused of visa fraud by hiding her ties with China’s People’s Liberation Army while seeking entry visa into the US, was taken into custody by US police in California, officials said on Tuesday.
The researcher, Tang Juan, is now in custody ‘’without bail,’’ the officials said.
The officials, however, did not give further details.
Tang is one of four Chinese nationals charged with visa fraud and hiding connections with the Chinese army while seeking entry into the US. She was interrogated for possible visa fraud earlier but fled and took refuge in the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco.
Tang, 37, had sought US visa as a researcher for permission to work in a radiation oncology laboratory at the University of California.
The officials said Tang was a visiting researcher in the Department of Radiation Oncology, funded by the Chinese Scholarship Council.
Three other Chinese nationals were charged for hiding their ties with the PLA while seeking research or study visa in the US.
Wang Xin, who was arrested June 7, was a researcher at the University of California-San Francisco.
He had already admitted to having made false statements about his ties with the Chinese military during his interview with US customs officials.
The other two, Song Chen, a researcher at Stanford University, and Zhao Kaikai, a graduate student at Indiana were arrested earlier and accused of concealing their ties with the Chinese military in their visa applications.
Officials said the FBI had identified visa holders in more than 25 American cities with hidden affiliations with the Chinese military.
Tang claimed on her visa application that she had no ties with the People’s Liberation Army. However, during a search of her home FBI found photos of Tang in a Chinese military uniform and information that she had worked as a researcher at China’s Air Force Military Medical University.
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