SAN FRANCISCO: A Chinese scientist charged with visa fraud after US authorities said she concealed her military ties was arrested after she left the Chinese consulate in San Francisco to seek medical care for her asthma, court documents showed.
Juan Tang, who has a doctorate in cellular biology, entered the United States on Dec. 27, 2019, to work at the University of California, Davis as a visiting researcher in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Alexandra Negin, an assistant federal public defender, said in the filing Wednesday asking the court for her release on bail.
A hearing on whether Tang, 37, should be released on bail is scheduled Friday. She is being held at a Sacramento County jail on behalf of federal authorities after her arrest last week.
Tang and three other scientists living in the US, face charges of lying about their status as members of China’s People’s Liberation Army. All were charged with visa fraud, the Justice Department said.
Tang was the last of the four to be arrested after the Justice Department accused the Chinese consulate in San Francisco of harboring a known fugitive.
Negin said Tang went to the consulate to seek help and remained there after FBI agents questioned her at her Davis apartment on June 20 and executed a search warrant, seizing her passport and visa.
A criminal complaint was filed under seal on June 26 but Tang did not learn she had been charged with a crime until her July 23 arrest, Negin wrote.
When US agents went to the Chinese consulate to inform her there was a warrant for her arrest Tang, who has asthma, wanted to surrender but was “in hysterics” and consulate employees believed she needed to see a doctor. the filing states.
Negin said she believes federal officers were surveilling the consulate and after seeing her leave in a vehicle with consular staff, followed them to a medical office where “Ms. Tang was seen, medically cleared and then arrested.”
Negin wrote Tang is not a danger to the community and could have remained in the consulate to avoid arrest.
“Instead she agreed to leave consulate property knowing this would allow law enforcement to arrest her,” she said.
Tang is married and has an 8-year-old daughter who is in China with Tang’s husband.
Tang left the family home at 18 to attend college and is a cancer researcher who had never traveled outside China before coming to the United States to do cancer research as part of a one-year program, Negin said.
Negin said Tang left her job in June as a visiting researcher at UC, Davis’ Department of Radiation Oncology because her lab was closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. She planned to return to China.
Agents found photographs of Tang in a uniform of the civilian cadre of China’s PLA and also reviewed articles from China that identified her military affiliation.
But Negin argued the evidence against Tang is based on old photographs from when she was a student at a medical school run by the military and documents that were translated on apps.
“That does not mean that she was ‘in the military,” Negin wrote.
“She has every incentive to see this case through to its conclusion and return to China after the case is resolved,” Negin added.
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Chinese scientist arrested in California after seeking medical care
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Chinese scientist arrested in California after seeking medical care
- Juan Tang and three other scientists living in the US face charges of lying about their status as members of China’s People’s Liberation Army
Coffee regions hit by extra days of extreme heat: scientists
- The world’s main coffee-growing regions are roasting under additional days of climate change-driven heat every year, threatening harvests and contributing to higher prices, researchers said Wednesday
PARIS: The world’s main coffee-growing regions are roasting under additional days of climate change-driven heat every year, threatening harvests and contributing to higher prices, researchers said Wednesday.
An analysis found that there were 47 extra days of harmful heat per year on average in 25 countries representing nearly all global coffee production between 2021 and 2025, according to independent research group Climate Central.
Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Ethiopia and Indonesia — which supply 75 percent of the world’s coffee — experienced on average 57 additional days of temperatures exceeding the threshold of 30C.
“Climate change is coming for our coffee. Nearly every major coffee-producing country is now experiencing more days of extreme heat that can harm coffee plants, reduce yields, and affect quality,” said Kristina Dahl, Climate Central’s vice president for science.
“In time, these impacts may ripple outward from farms to consumers, right into the quality and cost of your daily brew,” Dahl said in a statement.
US tariffs on imports from Brazil, which supplies a third of coffee consumed in the United States, contributed to higher prices this past year, Climate Central said.
But extreme weather in the world’s coffee-growing regions is “at least partly to blame” for the recent surge in prices, it added.
Coffee cultivation needs optimal temperatures and rainfall to thrive.
Temperatures above 30C are “extremely harmful” to arabica coffee plants and “suboptimal” for the robusta variety, Climate Central said. Those two plant species produce the majority of the global coffee supply.
For its analysis, Climate Central estimated how many days each year would have stayed below 30C in a world without carbon pollution but instead exceeded that level in reality — revealing the number of hot days added by climate change.
The last three years have been the hottest on record, according to climate monitors.
An analysis found that there were 47 extra days of harmful heat per year on average in 25 countries representing nearly all global coffee production between 2021 and 2025, according to independent research group Climate Central.
Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Ethiopia and Indonesia — which supply 75 percent of the world’s coffee — experienced on average 57 additional days of temperatures exceeding the threshold of 30C.
“Climate change is coming for our coffee. Nearly every major coffee-producing country is now experiencing more days of extreme heat that can harm coffee plants, reduce yields, and affect quality,” said Kristina Dahl, Climate Central’s vice president for science.
“In time, these impacts may ripple outward from farms to consumers, right into the quality and cost of your daily brew,” Dahl said in a statement.
US tariffs on imports from Brazil, which supplies a third of coffee consumed in the United States, contributed to higher prices this past year, Climate Central said.
But extreme weather in the world’s coffee-growing regions is “at least partly to blame” for the recent surge in prices, it added.
Coffee cultivation needs optimal temperatures and rainfall to thrive.
Temperatures above 30C are “extremely harmful” to arabica coffee plants and “suboptimal” for the robusta variety, Climate Central said. Those two plant species produce the majority of the global coffee supply.
For its analysis, Climate Central estimated how many days each year would have stayed below 30C in a world without carbon pollution but instead exceeded that level in reality — revealing the number of hot days added by climate change.
The last three years have been the hottest on record, according to climate monitors.
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