When the case of Navy Lt. Comdr. Edward C. Lin, who stands accused of handing over state secrets to a foreign government, broke earlier this week, Lin became the latest story of a Taiwan-born American citizen charged with spying against the United States.
But his case has a new twist. He is being tried under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and not a criminal case in civilian courts.
Lin faces multiple charges of espionage, alleging he communicated "secret information relating to the national defense [of the U.S.] to a representative of a foreign government." An additional allegation involves hiring a prostitute and committing adultery — a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).
Brian Sun, a member of the Chinese advocacy organization known as the Committee of 100 and the lawyer who represented Taiwanese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee, said the Lin case would have a negative impact on Chinese Americans.
“I don’t know anything about this naval intelligence guy,” Sun told NBC News. “[But] we’re talking about how it effects the image of Chinese Americans in all aspects of life.”
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He was especially concerned with the rise of national security issues in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields.
“This doesn’t mean all Chinese Americans are disloyal and subject to co-opting by some evil Chinese intelligence agency or by some Chinese company looking to pay a bunch of money for technology,” Sun said. “That’s what the Committee of 100 is concerned about, the negative image being fostered because of these cases.”
Sun is scheduled to lead a panel on how to avoid being in the “crossfire of national security concerns,” at a Committee of 100 event in Los Angeles Saturday.
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