The Chinese Communist Party’s tentacles stretched all the way to Brooklyn to prevent a naturalized US citizen getting into office, according to a federal investigation.

Xiong Yan – a former student organizer back in China – ran in a Democratic primary for Congress in Brooklyn in 2022, but a network of his former country’s spies went to great lengths to stop him, according to the investigation, which has led to charges against at least two people.

Communications intercepted by the feds showed one agent attempting to set Yan – a 59-year-old pastor and father of eight – up with a prostitute to smear his name, or hiring a thug to break his legs.

“The Communists in China are evil,” Yan told The Post. “I was shocked and surprised when I found out what they had tried to do to me.”

Xiong Yan, a pastor who lives on Long Island, said that Chinese authorities sabotaged his Democratic primary race in Brooklyn two years ago. Stephen Yang

Messages and rumors were also spread within the Chinese community to discredit Yan, who didn’t drop out of the race, but finished with only 700 votes, according to Ballotpedia.  

Last week, Manhattan federal prosecutors charged Yuanjun Tang, a one-time pro-democracy activist, with spying on fellow dissidents, including Yan, for the Chinese government.

Tang, 67, is accused of secretly working for the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), who allegeldy equipped him with a spy camera phone to report on Yan’s activities during the Democratic primary.

The “compromised phone” was outfitted with a “bug” allowing all photos and videos to be transmitted to the MSS instantly.

In return for his services, the complaint alleges authorities paid an undisclosed amount to Tang’s family members in China.

In an interview with The Post Tuesday Yan said he knew Tang, and used to see him at Chinese pro-democracy protests in New York City.

One-time pro-democracy activist Yuanjun Tang now stands accused of spying on fellow dissidents in New York. Yuanjun Tang/Youtube

“I had no reason to doubt him at the time,” said Yan. “He was my friend. During the campaign I was really busy so I wasn’t paying much attention. A lot of people were coming to speeches and taking my picture.”

Tang’s lawyer pointed out at this time his client is still only alleged to have comitted a crime but would not comment further.

Alongside Tang, federal authorities say China used other, apparently more determined, agents to discredit Yan; according to a separate complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court in 2022.

The complaint alleges Qiming Lin, a former police officer in the People’s Republic of China, also helped to undermine Yan’s bid for Congress.

In a series of telephone conversations recorded between Lin and a private investigator working for federal authorities in the US, Lin said he wanted to use a prostitute to discredit Yan’s candidacy.

Chinese security forces sent tanks to quash the peaceful pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989. Both Xiong Yan and Yuanjun Tang took place in the protests before seeking political asylum in the US. AP

Xiong Yan was one of the student organizers of the Tiananmen Square protests, which ended with a massacre by the Chinese security forces in June, 1989. Courtesy of Yan Xiong

“If you don’t find anything after following him for a few weeks, can we manufacture something like what happened to the pianist?” says Lin in one conversation, according to the complaint.

The “pianist” is a reference to Chinese musician Li Yundi, who was charged with soliciting a prostitute in China a month before the surveillance began on Yan in October 2021.

Western reports of the arrest from the BBC and New York Times expressed skepticism and noted the Chinese government’s practice of using drummed up charges against those who step out of line.

The repercussions were severe — Li had his membership cancelled by the Chinese Musicians Association for “extremely negative social impact” according to the Slipped Disc blog, which chronicles the classical music scene and said he was also banned from appearing in the media or leaving the country for two years.

In New York, the investigator said he had been unable to dig up “unpaid taxes, extramarital affairs, sex harassment, child porn, homosexual activity, things of that nature,” on Yan, according to the complaint

That prompted Lin to respond: “Like we said previously, you find a girl. Or see how he goes for prostitution, take some photos,” the complaint said.

Qiming Lin allegedly tried to target Xiong Yan in order to sabotage his congressional campaign in Brooklyn at the order of the Chinese Communist Party in 2021 and 2022, according to federal court documents. US District Court Eastern District of NY

The private investigator then told Lin he would need $40,000 to arrange for a woman to volunteer for Yan’s campaign and then seduce him, per the complaint. Lin is said to have responded “the money is not a problem” on the monitored call in January 2022.

Lin also suggested physical harm. “You can start thinking now, aside from violence, what other plans are there? Huh? But in the end, violence would be fine too,” he said, according to the complaint. “Beat him, beat him until he cannot run for election…Car accident, he will be completely wrecked, right?”

Lin absconded and remains a fugitive from justice, according to the District Attorney for Eastern New York.

Yan told The Post he was unaware of the alleged plans to hurt him and besmirch his character until after the primary, when he was contacted by federal agents and read Lin’s indictment.

He said he knew that people in the Chinese community in Brooklyn were working against him when he was shut out of speaking events and heard about a telephone campaign to discredit him.

Xiong Yan, a pro-democracy activist, joined the Marines after moving to the US in the early aughts. He served two tours of duty in Iraq. Courtesy of Yan Xiong

Chinese democracy protesters gather in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in June 1989 shortly before things became bloody with a crackdown from the authorities. China still does not recognize the protest or what happened to this day. AFP/Getty Images

“At speaking events with other candidates the community leaders wouldn’t give me the microphone,” Yan told The Post, adding that he saw disparaging remarks about him on Chinese social media that called him a tax cheat, among other things.

Yan also believes Chinese leaders ran another candidate in the crowded primary race in order to split the vote. “They spread rumors against me, but I refused to leave the race. I stayed from the beginning until the end,” he said.

The primary race in Brooklyn’s 10th District was won by Daniel Goldman in August, 2022, who went on to win the congressional race in November. Yan managed 742 votes — finishing ahead of former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, who received just 519 votes in the primary.

Yan had already suffered in China. As a 23-year-old law student at Beijing University, he led student protests for political reform and democracy in Tiananmen Square and was there in the early morning of Jun 4, 1989 when Chinese security forces opened fire on the peaceful demonstrators, killing thousands.

Current Chinese President Xi Jinping pictured in Beijing in May 2024 REUTERS

He helped carry many bodies of his dead and wounded fellow students to a nearby hospital, he said.

Yan became one of the country’s most wanted, and several days later he was returned to Beijing under armed guard and imprisoned at Qincheng, a notorious maximum security prison, for 19 months without being charged with any crime.

Following his release, government authorities stripped him of his university degrees and identification. He was granted political asylum in the US, and moved to Los Angeles. China still considers him a fugitive.

“People who died in the massacre were all shot,” he told The Post. “I really feel sad that 35 years later, the Chinese communist party is still going after us, and have sent their people to every corner of the US and the world to find us.”