While most Americans were finalizing their menus and getting into the holiday spirit, Biden commuted the sentence of Yanjun Xu on November 22. Xu was convicted in 2022 for “conspiracy to commit economic espionage; conspiracy to commit trade secret theft; attempted economic espionage by theft or fraud; attempted theft of trade secrets by taking or deception.”

Similarly, spy Ji Chaoqun was convicted of “conspiracy to defraud the United States; impersonating agents of foreign governments; statements or entries generally.” Ji arrived in the United States in 2013 on an F1 Visa before later enlisting in the U.S. Army Reserves “under a program allowing legal immigrants with special skills to serve”.

Ji worked at the direction of high-level intelligence officers in the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security, a provincial department of the Ministry of State Security for the People’s Republic of China.