The strange, twisted story of how China spied on Alysa Liu and her father

On November 16, In 2021, Matthew Ziburis was sitting in his car in a Bay Area neighborhood, chasing an “enemy,” as he put it. A veteran of both the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, Ziburis previously served in Iraq. But on this mission he worked at his best China’s government. The targets that fall day were American citizens: Arthur Liu and his teenage daughter, Alyssa.

Arthur’s personal story exemplified the American dream. As a university student, he participated in the 1989 pro-democracy movement in China. After the suppression at Tiananmen Square That year he fled to the United States and settled in California. Arthur poured a small fortune and an equal amount of energy into molding Alysa into a figure skating phenom. A national champion at age 13, she was cast with Jimmy Fallon The Tonight Show, and at the time was on track to represent America at the Winter Olympics in Beijing the following year.

Ziburis was watching the Liu home when he called Arthur and falsely claimed to be a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee who needed to discuss the upcoming trip to Beijing, Arthur says. Ziburis was adamant that Arthur fax him copies of his and his daughter’s passports as part of a “travel readiness test,” Liu tells WIRED. This struck Arthur as odd. In his many years of dealing with sports bodies, he has never made such a request. Alysa’s agent did not respond to a request for comment.

Ziburis’ surveillance of Arthur and Alysa Liu that November day five years ago was just one episode in a bizarre saga that stretched from California to Beijing, implicated New York City mayors and members of the US Congress, and saw two people plead guilty and two more await trial.

Unbeknownst to Ziburis, as he sat outside Aurthur and Alysa’s home in Northern California, he too was being watched.

Ziburis was allegedly sent to Northern California by Frank Liu, a self-styled fixer in the Chinese community of Long Island, New York, who in turn received orders from a person in China named Qiang Sun. According to US authorities, Sun was working at the behest of the Chinese government. A concerned private investigator who once worked for Frank Liu alerted the FBI to Frank’s escapades and assisted authorities. Law enforcement officers were already on Ziburis when he arrived. Anthony Ricco, Ziburis’ attorney, did not respond to requests for comment.

Officers watched as Ziburis searched Arthur’s home and visited his law office. The heavy-set man who was joking around in Arthur’s office also caught the attention of a neighbor, who approached Ziburis and asked him if he needed help, Arthur says. Apparently worried, the FBI called Arthur to warn him that Ziburis was on his way to his house. By then, partly because of the harassment, Arthur and Alysa were on a plane to fly out of California. “It was like a movie,” Arthur says.

Alysa’s performance in Beijing in 2022 was disappointing. Burned out, she retired from the sport. Then in Februaryafter return to the ice After a two-year hiatus, Alysa became the first American female figure skater to win Olympic gold since 2002 — purposely without her father by her side.

Despite her much-publicized complicated relationship with Arthur, Alysa’s success – underscored by her signature piercing smile, raccoon tail paint job and palpable joy for her sport – has reignited interest in the long-running case of transnational oppression against her and her father. Human rights advocates and researchers have in recent years documented Beijing’s efforts to suppress critical voices, even those who live abroad or whose alleged violations date back decades.