Tang Juan, who came to the U.S. on a J-1 visa and was a researcher at the University of California, Davis, entered the Chinese consulate in San Francisco after being interviewed by the FBI on June 20 about alleged visa fraud and has remained there, according to the FBI assessment. According to documents filed on July 20 in the San Francisco division of the U.S. district court for the Northern District of

California, Tang Juan had stated on her visa application that she did not have any affiliation with the People's Liberation Army (PLA), but an investigation revealed that she worked at the Air Force Military

Medical University (FMMU), a PLA-affiliated university in China, and she is considered to be active military personnel. After obtaining a warrant, the FBI searched her home and found evidence of her affiliation with the PLA. On June 26, Tang was charged with visa fraud. American experts say using a diplomatic facility to shelter someone charged with a federal crime could cause serious tension between the U.S. and China, especially as the U.S. is seeking to crack down on Chinese espionage and research theft. Minyao Wang, a New York-based lawyer who has worked on IP theft

cases related to China said "It is highly unusual for a Chinese diplomatic post to associate so closely with a suspect in an intellectual property theft-related case. Sheltering a defendant in a criminal case by using the diplomatic immunity of a consular building, if true, is really extraordinary." US prosecutors stated, "As the Tang case demonstrates, the Chinese consulate in San Francisco

provides a potential safe harbour for a PLA official intent on avoiding prosecution in the United States."