Two men have been charged with plotting to silence a Los Angeles artist critical of the Chinese government and trying to illegally export sensitive U.S. military technology to China, according to federal prosecutors.
The defendants, Cui Guanghai, 43, of China, and John Miller, 63, a British national who is a permanent U.S. resident, orchestrated a harassment campaign against a U.S.-based dissident artist whom the authorities did not name, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. The two men also tried to smuggle restricted technology into China, the office said.
The target of the harassment plot, the authorities say, was a Los Angeles-based artist who had publicly criticized President Xi Jinping of China. The artist planned to protest against President Xi during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November 2023 in San Francisco. The artist had also created sculptures of President Xi and his wife that, according to a federal complaint, depicted them kneeling, bare-chested, with their hands tied behind their backs.
Mr. Cui and Mr. Miller, who unknowingly hired two F.B.I. agents working undercover, arranged to place a tracking device on the artist’s car and have its tires slashed, prosecutors said in court documents. The two also planned to destroy the artist’s sculptures, though they were unsuccessful, the authorities said.
Mr. Cui and Mr. Miller are currently in custody in Serbia, according to federal prosecutors. It is unclear whether either man has legal representation.
“The United States will seek extradition of Cui and Miller and looks forward to working in partnership with the Republic of Serbia’s Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Justice,” prosecutors said in a statement.
On May 30, a federal grand jury in California returned an indictment charging the two with interstate stalking, conspiracy, and smuggling and violating the Arms Export Control Act, according to federal prosecutors.
“The defendants allegedly plotted to harass and interfere with an individual who criticized the actions of the People’s Republic of China while exercising their constitutionally protected free speech rights within the United States of America,” Dan Bongino, the F.B.I.’s deputy director, in a statement said.
The two men are also accused of trying to “obtain and export sensitive U.S. military technology to China,” Mr. Bongino added.
In the spring of 2025, as the artist prepared to display the sculptures of President Xi and his wife online, Mr. Cui and Mr. Miller paid two people $36,500 to intervene, according to court documents. The two people — who also turned out to be F.B.I. agents working undercover — were tasked with convincing the artist not the move forward with the livestream.
Around the same time that the two are said to have harassed the artist, they also tried to acquire and smuggle restricted military technology, including air defense radar, drones, missiles and cryptographic devices to China, prosecutors said.
They discussed concealing the equipment in consumer items like blenders and small electronics or shipping it through Hong Kong, according to an affidavit in support of the United States’ request for extradition.
The equipment was to be reverse engineered back in China, according to court documents.
Federal prosecutors said they wired $10,000 as a deposit for a cryptographic device, transferring the money through a U.S. bank account and a courier service.
But Mr. Cui and Mr. Miller were ultimately unsuccessful in getting the equipment to China after encountering complications in shipping it to Hong Kong and being detained in Serbia, according to court documents.
Mark Walker is an investigative reporter for The Times focused on transportation. He is based in Washington.
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