US authorities on Wednesday seized 13 internet domains they suspect were used by Chinese agents to obtain classified information from Americans with security clearances.

Last week, the Five Eyes intelligence alliance — composed of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand — issued a rare warning that Chinese military intelligence services were using LinkedIn and other job platforms to pry secret information.

In a statement on Wednesday, the US Department of Justice announced the seizure of domain names allegedly used by sham consulting sites to target Americans with access to classified information.

“Today’s seizures send a clear message that any attempts to exploit Americans trusted with access to our nation’s most sensitive information will be exposed and dismantled,” said US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.

Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, said the seizures illustrate “the lengths the Chinese government’s intelligence services will go to as they try to use AI-generated content to trick, recruit, or coerce current and former US security clearance holders into sharing sensitive information.”

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg warned Americans they should treat any offers of quick income for vague consulting “with extreme caution and remain vigilant for warning signs of malicious targeting.”

The unnamed conspirators behind the websites “have denied any involvement by any foreign government,” according to the Justice Department statement.

A woman who served as mayor of a California city has been charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government, the Department of Justice said Monday.

Eileen Wang, 58, the mayor of Arcadia, a city just north of Los Angeles with a population of about 50,000, has agreed to plead guilty to the felony charge, the department said in a statement.

Wang resigned from her post as mayor on Monday, according to the Arcadia City Council’s website.

Acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government carries a maximum term of 10 years in prison in the United States.

The Justice Department said Wang and an accomplice, Yaoning Sun, promoted pro-Chinese propaganda through a website they operated called US News Center serving the local Chinese American community.

“Wang and Sun received and executed directives from (Chinese) government officials to post (pro-Chinese) content on the website,” it said.

Sun pleaded guilty in 2025 to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government and is serving a four-year prison sentence.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing this week and meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

A US jury convicted a man on Wednesday for his role in running a clandestine Chinese “police station” in New York as part of a campaign to monitor US-based dissidents.

“Harry” Lu Jianwang, 64, faces up to 30 years in prison for acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government in setting up and running the “overseas police station” in Manhattan’s Chinatown, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Lu and another man, Chen Jinping, were arrested in April 2023 and accused of operating the secret police station, which operated from an office building, on behalf of China’s Ministry of Public Security.

Canada and several European governments have cracked down on similar “police stations,” whose existence was first revealed by Spain-based rights group Safeguard Defenders.

They often operate with little or no indication they are there, though US officials said the Manhattan office had been visited by officials from the Chinese consulate in New York.

According to Safeguard Defenders, the stations have been involved in pressuring nationals to return home to face criminal charges.

“Lu Jianwang used a police station in New York City to target PRC (People’s Republic of China) dissidents in furtherance of the Chinese government’s political agenda,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr.

FBI agents first searched the outpost in October 2022 and found a blue banner reading “Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, New York, USA,” referring to a city in southeastern China.

“The New York police station was part of a global initiative by the MPS (Ministry of Public Security) to establish overseas police service stations all over the world,” the Justice Department said.

“Lu was tasked by his MPS handler with collecting information on behalf of the Chinese government, such as locating a pro-democracy advocate who had fled from China and moved to the US,” it added.

Beijing said in December last year that there was no “so-called police station.”

“China is a country governed by the rule of law and has always strictly abided by international law and respected all countries’ judicial sovereignty,” said foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian when asked about the case at a regular news conference.

Lu’s co-defendant Chen Jinping is awaiting sentencing.