Chinese NYPD officer fired for allegedly helping CCP target woman: Report

A New York Police Department officer was fired in February after a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe found that he was allegedly entangled in activities involving the Chinese Community Party, theNew York Post reported.

The NYPD terminated Lieutenant Steven Li after 20 years with the department for making false statements and failure to report, according to internal disciplinary records obtained byDocumented.

'The PRC's disdain for the rule of law and its efforts to coerce and intimidate.'

The news outlet discovered that Li helped a Chinese foreign agent, Sun Hoi Ying, connect with a woman living in the United States who was accused in China of embezzling money from a state-owned company. The CCP claimed the woman, referred to only as "Huang," stole the money to purchase properties in China. The NYPDdocument noted that the Chinese government seized the woman's properties in China amid the ongoing dispute.

Ying was assigned to "Operation Fox Hunt," a Chinese government program started in 2014 to forcibly repatriate alleged Chinese fugitives. As part of that mission, Ying was allegedly dispatched to the U.S. to pressure Huang to settle her dispute with the CCP.

"It is undisputed that upon his arrival to the United States in December 2019, Sun enlisted the assistance of [Li] in trying to resolve the dispute with [Huang]," the NYPD document read.

According to the document, Li met with the woman on several occasions. He claimed he acted only as an "intermediary" between her and Ying to "help resolve their problems."

The document stated, "The thought was that since (Li) was a police officer, a position held in high esteem in the Chinese community ... the woman would be more amenable to discussing her case with Sun as him as her intermediary," it added.

The paperwork claimed that Li, Ying, and Huang met at a restaurant on December 1, 2019. Li allegedly introduced the two and left the room to allow them to discuss the dispute. According to the NYPD document, Li texted someone on WeChat during the meeting, stating that Huang appeared "a little bit emotional."

Li claimed that he knew Huang from community events and had not been acting as an agent for the CCP. He was not criminally charged. Following an NYPD investigation, the department found that Li had not pressured Huang and had not acted as a CCP agent. However, Li was found guilty of making false statements and failure to report.

Li did not respond to a request for comment from Documented.

Sun was charged in 2022 with one count of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General, according to theDepartment of Justice.

Regarding the charges, Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen stated at the time, "This case demonstrates, once again, the PRC's [People's Republic of China's] disdain for the rule of law and its efforts to coerce and intimidate those it targets on our shores as part of its Operation Fox Hunt."

"The defendant allegedly traveled to the United States and enlisted others, including a sworn law enforcement officer, to spy on and blackmail his victims. Such conduct is both criminal and reprehensible," Olsen added.

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