美国当局于近日对五名中国籍人士提起诉讼，指控他们存在误导调查机构的行为及合谋清除手机照片之举。这一事件发生在去年夏季在密歇根州偏远军事基地Camp Grayling附近发生人群聚集进行训练之后的逾一年后。
这五人当时均为密歇根大学的学生，并未因2023年8月发生在营格赖灵（Camp Grayling）现场的情况而面临指控，而是被指涉嫌误导调查人员关于他们行程的信息及串谋清除手机中的照片。该指控基于联邦法院近日提交的一份刑事起诉书。
根据FBI的调查，在周二向法庭递交的文件中指出，此前曾有记录显示，一些来自中国的大学生在访问美国重要军事设施时拍摄照片的行为并不罕见。
对于这五名被告的具体位置信息，目前官方并未披露。据吉娜·巴拉亚（Gina Balaya）女士透露，他们是密歇根大学的毕业生，并且参与了一个与上海交通大学共同开展的合作项目。
2023年夏季的一天深夜，这些男子在附近湖边被一名来自犹他州国民警卫队上校发现。其中一人声称“我们是媒体”，随后四人收拾行装并同意离开现场。根据FBI的说法，这些人曾在事发一周前预约了附近的旅店。
几个月后，其中一名男子在通过底特律机场的边境官员面试时被问及旅行情况，并且计划前往韩国和中国。他向调查人员表示此次出行是为了观赏“流星雨”，但FBI发现其外部硬盘中有同日与国民警卫队上校相遇时拍摄的军用车辆图片。
其余四人于2023年3月在到达芝加哥机场后接受问询，他们承认8月份曾到过米歇根州北部地区，不过宣称是为了观赏“流星雨”。他们在提及那位国民警卫队员时只用了诸如“士兵”、“露营者”或“好人”的代称。去年12月，在进行微信交流时，五人提到了清除照片的相关事宜。
FBI还指出，这五人在2023年春季从大学毕业后，参与了由密歇根大学与上海交通大学共同开展的项目合作计划。
另外需要提及的是，美国联邦调查局还曾于2020年对在密歇根州立大学学习期间拍摄海军航空站凯西沃斯（Key West）军事设施照片的两名中国公民予以判刑。
新闻来源：www.abcnews.go.com
原文地址：Five Chinese nationals charged with covering up midnight visit to Michigan military site
新闻日期：2024-10-02
原文摘要：
U.S. authorities charged five Chinese nationals with lying and trying to cover their tracks, more than a year after they were confronted in the dark near a remote Michigan military site where thousands of people had gathered for summer drills. The five, who were University of Michigan students at the time, were not charged for what happened at Camp Grayling in August 2023. Rather they are accused of misleading investigators about the trip and conspiring to clear their phones of photos, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. The FBI noted in the Tuesday court filing that there have been instances of college students from China taking photos of vital defense sites in the United States. There was nothing in the file revealing the whereabouts of the five men. “The defendants are not in custody. Should they come into contact with U.S. authorities, they will be arrested and face these charges,” Gina Balaya, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit, said Wednesday. In summer 2023, the five were confronted after midnight near a lake by a sergeant major with the Utah National Guard. One said, “We are media,” before they collected their belongings and agreed to leave the area, the FBI said. The FBI learned that the men had booked a room at a nearby motel a week before they were spotted outside Camp Grayling, 200 miles (321.8 kilometers) north of Detroit. Four months later, one of the men was interviewed by border officers at the Detroit airport before traveling to South Korea and China. He told investigators that he and others had taken a trip to northern Michigan “to see shooting stars,” the FBI said. A check of his external hard drive revealed two images of military vehicles taken on the same night of the encounter with the National Guard officer, the FBI said. The other four men were interviewed last March after arriving in Chicago on a flight from Iceland. They acknowledged being in northern Michigan in August 2023, but they said it was to see a meteor shower, the FBI said. They mentioned the National Guard officer but referred to him only as “the soldier,” a camper or “nice guy,” according to the criminal complaint. The men last December communicated on WeChat about clearing photos from their cameras and phones, investigators said. The FBI said all five men graduated last spring from the University of Michigan. They were part of a joint program between the university and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China. In 2020, two Chinese nationals who were pursuing master's degrees at the University of Michigan were sentenced to prison for illegally photographing sites at a naval air station in Key West, Florida. ___ Follow Ed White at https://twitter.com/edwritez
