Feds Charge 5 Chinese Nationals With Covering Up Visit to Military Site

U.S. federal authorities announced charges against five Chinese nationals this week for covering up a visit to a military site in Michigan.
On Wednesday, the FBI announced the charges against the five Chinese nationals who were students at the University of Michigan at the time of the incident in August 2023. The five individuals were allegedly caught near a military site in Michigan at night, where drills were taking place.
The five individuals are not facing charges for the events at Camp Grayling in August 2023. Instead, a federal criminal complaint accuses them of lying to investigators about the trip and conspiring to delete photos from their phones.
In a court filing on Tuesday, the FBI pointed out that there have been previous cases involving Chinese college students photographing critical U.S. defense sites. However, the filing from the FBI did not provide any details of where the five individuals were found.
“The defendants are not in custody. Should they come into contact with U.S. authorities, they will be arrested and face these charges,” Gina Balaya, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit, said on Wednesday.
During the summer of 2023, a sergeant major with the Utah National Guard confronted the five individuals near a lake just after midnight. According to the FBI, one of them claimed, “We are media,” before they gathered their belongings and agreed to leave the area.
The FBI discovered that the group had reserved a room at a nearby motel a week prior to being seen outside Camp Grayling, located about 200 miles north of Detroit.
Four months later, border officers at Detroit airport interviewed one of the men before he traveled to South Korea and China. He told investigators that he and the others had visited northern Michigan “to see shooting stars,” according to the FBI.
An inspection of his external hard drive uncovered two photos of military vehicles taken on the same night the group was confronted by the National Guard officer, according to the FBI.
The FBI reported that the other four men were interviewed in March after landing in Chicago from Iceland. They admitted to being in northern Michigan in August 2023 but claimed the trip was to watch a meteor shower. In their statements, the men referenced the National Guard officer, though they described him only as “the soldier,” a camper or simply “the nice guy,” according to the criminal complaint.
According to the FBI, all five men graduated from the University of Michigan last spring. They were enrolled in a joint program between the University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.