U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities have arrested a Chinese national in New Jersey who ran a popular restaurant and is accused of spying for China.
Ming Xi Zhang, 61, known as “Sushi John,” ran Ya Ya Noodles in Montgomery Township, N.J., the New York Post reported.
“Any illegal alien conducting activities related to espionage, sabotage or export control against the United States is subject to deportation,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Newark Field Office Director John Tsoukaris said in a statement.
According to federal authorities, Zhang lawfully entered the United States in June 2000 via Los Angeles International Airport. However, the feds said the restaurant proprietor “violated the terms of his lawful admission.”
The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey convicted Zhang of “illegally acting as an agent of a foreign government” without notifying the Attorney General. On April 30, 2024, a judge sentenced Zhang to three years of probation.
According to MyCentralJersey.com, citing federal court papers, the “details of Zhang’s activities remain under seal.” According to the NY Post, officials held Zhang at the Elizabeth Detention Center pending immigration proceedings.
“He’s doing good, I mean, given the circumstances,” the newspaper quoted one worker as saying. “But yeah, he’s just kind of waiting… to get let out.”
According to a Community News Service article first published in 2013, Zhang was born in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao. Zhang apparently bought the restaurant about 10 years ago, NJ.com reported.
“We’re all just kind of hoping, waiting for bond, parole, whatever it is,” NJ.com quoted Zhang’s daughter, Emily, as saying. “…People have been coming in, offering their phone numbers and asking how they can help.”
She told NJ.com the feds had asked to check in with her father and arrested him.
The elder Zhang worked at various restaurants and once served sushi to celebrity chef Bobby Flay, who purportedly said, according to Community News Service, “Oh, John, I love your sushi.” Zhang displayed a photo he took with Flay at his restaurant.
“I like to eat, and I like to cook,” Community News Service quoted Zhang as saying in 2013. “When I’m working, I’m always full of energy “When I’m doing the sushi bar, I’m very happy.”
Federal authorities have stepped up their enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws since President Donald Trump took office for his second term in January.
Concerns over Chinese espionage activities in the country have increased steadily in recent years.
In early 2022, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray told NBC News that, on average, the agency opened a China-related counter-intelligence investigation every 12 hours. At the time, the federal investigative agency had more than 2,000 such cases underway.
“There is no country that presents a broader, more severe threat to our innovation, our ideas and our economic security than China does,” NBC News quoted Wray as saying at the time.
According to the FBI’s website, “the Chinese government is seeking to become the world’s greatest superpower through predatory lending and business practices, systematic theft of intellectual property, and brazen cyber intrusions.”
“China’s efforts target businesses, academic institutions, researchers, lawmakers, and the general public and will require a whole-of-society response,” the agency said on its website. “The government and the private sector must commit to working together to better understand and counter the threat.”
In January and February 2023, a high-altitude Chinese balloon flew across North American airspace. The U.S. Air Force shot down the balloon, which was widely believed to be a Chinese surveillance balloon, on Feb. 4 off South Carolina’s coast, but not before weeks of public coverage, political discourse and criticism of President Joe Biden and his administration.
