Two federal indictments unsealed this week provide fresh evidence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is waging an unconventional war against the United States, one that targets American lives, security, and scientific edge through hacking and industrial-scale drug trafficking.
On April 27, Chinese national Xu Zewei appeared in a federal court in Houston after being extradited from Italy. He faces a nine-count indictment for hacking campaigns between 2020 and 2021. According to prosecutors, officials of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) and Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB) recruited Xu and co-conspirator Zhang Yu in early 2020 and instructed the pair to break into U.S. universities and steal research on vaccines, treatments, and testing from leading immunologists and virologists.
This case highlights two critical issues. First, during those early days of the pandemic, the CCP sought solutions to a crisis of its own making by stealing valuable information from America. Meanwhile, the party relentlessly covered up the virus’s origin (lab leak theory) and its failure to share vital and timely information with the world prevented many nations from seizing a crucial opportunity to respond effectively. As a result, we endured more than two years of measures that ultimately proved ineffective (i.e. lockdowns and masks) in controlling the spread of Covid-19, inflicting severe damage to our economies and well-being.
Second, Xu and Zhang should not be viewed as mere rogue hackers operating solo from basements out of boredom. The indictment reveals that at the time, Xu worked for Shanghai Powerock Network Co. Ltd., and Zhang for Shanghai Firetech — companies that function as extensions of the Chinese state’s cyber army.
Chinese State-Sponsored Hacking
Their case exposes a crucial and often overlooked element of Chinese state-sponsored hacking. While the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) manages its own dedicated hacking unit, the Chinese government also enlists contractors and private companies to conduct cyber operations against foreign entities, all under the watchful eye of government officials.
By leveraging the private sector for these hacking endeavors, Beijing has amplified its capacity to target foreign institutions, all while ensuring plausible deniability in case these hackers are apprehended.
The pair were also linked to the notorious HAFNIUM (Silk Typhoon) group, which exploited Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities to compromise nearly 13,000 organizations worldwide, including universities, law firms, think tanks, and defense contractors, between late 2020 and early 2021.
The lack of an extradition treaty between the U.S. and China often allows these hackers to evade justice for their crimes. Thus, it is remarkable that a high-profile hacker like Xu was apprehended in Italy while vacationing and successfully extradited to the U.S. His indictment and forthcoming trial will shed light on Beijing’s cyber operations and send a strong message to other hackers in China, including Xu’s co-conspirator Zhang, that accountability is on the horizon and that justice ultimately prevails.
A Second Indictment: The Meth Engineers
On the same day Xu was indicted, federal prosecutors in New York charged two other Chinese nationals, Wenfeng Cui (“Vincen”) and Fan Pang (“Jerry”), with conspiring to build and export an industrial-scale methamphetamine production facility capable of churning out nearly 900 pounds of meth per day.
A single lethal dose of methamphetamine is around 200 mg, with reports of some deaths occurring even at lower doses. At this rate, one day’s planned output could theoretically kill millions. In essence, what Cui and Pang designed was akin to a weapon of mass destruction.
Even more alarming, the two successfully built a prototype last summer. Additionally, they revealed to undercover agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) just how simple it is to ship essential chemicals for meth synthesis from China to the U.S. while disguising their true nature.
By December, the two had sent tens of thousands of pounds of specialized machinery and equipment from China to Europe, with the intent to create a facility for industrial-scale meth production.
Fortunately, law enforcement successfully apprehended the Chinese duo in New York City this February. Shortly after their arrest, authorities seized shipping containers filled with dangerous equipment at a port in Europe. In announcing the charges against these individuals, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton emphasized the gravity of the situation, stating, “Their goal was terrifying in its ambition. The potential harm of this scale of methamphetamine on our streets should give all New Yorkers and all Americans pause.”
Cui and Pang’s arrest doesn’t eliminate such a threat completely because they allegedly indicated to DEA undercover agents that researchers at China’s most prestigious state-run institution, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, are working on developing similar mass-scale meth production machinery.
There is compelling evidence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) may be waging a covert drug war against the United States. As the largest global supplier of fentanyl precursor chemicals, China has played a crucial role in exacerbating America’s overwhelming opioid crisis. Despite numerous complaints from U.S. officials, China continues to support companies that produce these harmful precursors and synthetic drugs, showing a blatant disregard for the consequences.
Moreover, a ProPublica report highlights alarming collusion between Chinese diplomatic officials and transnational criminal organizations that oversee marijuana cultivation and distribution throughout the U.S., affecting states from California to Oklahoma and Maine.
If Cui and Pang are to be believed, and China’s leading scientists are indeed developing technology for large-scale meth production, this suggests that the Communist regime may be intentionally inundating the U.S. market with various drugs as part of a strategic plan to destabilize America.
While many Americans still view U.S.-China competition as purely economic or military, the CCP clearly sees it differently. It is using every tool, be it state-directed hackers, proxy companies, or drug precursors, to weaken American society, steal our intellectual property, and seek to gain leverage on key issues like Taiwan.
The successful extradition of Xu from Italy shows that accountability is possible even without a U.S.-China extradition treaty. But law enforcement victories alone are not enough. The United States must treat the CCP as the strategic adversary it is. That means hardening our cyber defenses, cracking down on precursor chemicals at the source, and confronting Beijing’s whole-of-society assault with a whole-of-government response. Our adversary is not constrained by conventional rules, and we can no longer afford to be tied to outdated norms either.