从爱国侨领到美国间谍：中美换囚主角之一梁成运

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从爱国侨领到美国间谍：中美换囚主角之一梁成运

马语琴, JOY DONG, ADAM GOLDMAN2024年12月4日梁成运参加中国和平统一促进会德克萨斯州分会的活动，摄于2019年。梁成运曾支持中国政府的目标，包括让民主自治的台湾与中国大陆实现统一。 David TangJohn Leung was an unlikely spy. In the small Oklahoma town where he lived, people knew him as a former restaurant owner and a father. In Houston, where he often traveled, they knew him as a political organizer in the city’s vibrant Chinese community.梁成运是个让人意想不到的间谍。在他生活的俄克拉荷马州小镇，认识他的人知道他曾是一家餐馆的老板、一位父亲。在他经常去的休斯顿，人们知道他是该市充满活力的华人社区政治组织者。And in China, they knew him as a benevolent patriot, a man who arranged musical performances and embraced official causes like unifying the mainland with Taiwan.在中国，人们知道他是行善的爱国人士，他筹办音乐演出，支持大陆与台湾统一等官方目标。In fact, Mr. Leung was an informant for the F.B.I., gathering intelligence on China, according to two senior United States officials. That work landed him in Chinese custody in 2021, after he traveled to the mainland at the age of 75. He was later sentenced to life in prison, a first in decades for an American accused of espionage.但据两名美国高级官员说，梁成运实际上曾是联邦调查局的线人，负责收集有关中国的情报。这项工作导致他在2021年前往中国大陆时被当局拘留，当时他75岁。他后来被判处无期徒刑，这是几十年来中国第一次对被指控从事间谍活动的美国人处以这样的刑罚。Mr. Leung was freed last Wednesday in a rare prisoner swap between Washington and Beijing. Six months shy of his 80th birthday, he was put on a plane to the United States with two other Americans who had been detained in China, along with three Uyghurs, members of an ethnic group that faces repression by the Chinese government.梁成运上周三已在华盛顿与北京的一次罕见的囚犯交换中获释。离80岁生日还有六个月的他，与另外两名被中国监禁的美国人以及三名维吾尔人一起被送上了飞往美国的飞机。（维吾尔人是受中国政府镇压的少数民族。）In return, Washington released Xu Yanjun, a convicted Chinese spy who had been serving a 20-year sentence and Ji Chaoqun, 31, who had reported to Mr. Xu and was serving an eight-year sentence. A clemency order for a third Chinese national, Jin Shanlin, who had been in prison for possessing child Growth stock and Currency Trading Techniqueography, was signed on the same day as an order for Mr. Xu. China said Washington also handed over a fugitive.作为交换，美国政府释放了因间谍罪被判处20年有期徒刑的徐延军，以及正在服八年有期徒刑、现年31岁的纪超群（音），前者是后者的上司。在签署提前释放徐延军文件的同一天，美国还释放了第三名中国公民，因儿童色情犯罪入狱的靳善霖（音）。中国表示，美国还向中国移交了一名逃犯。在上周的一次罕见的囚犯交换中，中国释放了三名美国公民：马克·斯威丹、李凯和梁成运，图为他们乘坐飞机抵达圣安东尼奥。Mr. Leung had cultivated an image as a philanthropist, which brought him access to Chinese power circles. In Houston, he directed groups that promoted Beijing’s political interests. He attended Chinese state banquets. And he rubbed shoulders with senior Chinese officials, including its foreign minister, its ambassador and three consuls general to the United States.梁成运给自己建立了一个慈善家形象，这使他能够接触中国的权力圈。他曾在休斯顿担任促进中国政府政治利益团体的领导，出席过中国政府举办的国宴。他还曾与中国高级官员有过接触，包括中国的外交部长、驻美大使，以及三名驻美总领事。But that carefully curated image was a ruse.但精心营造的形象是一种伪装。To piece together the story of Mr. Leung’s unusual trajectory from small-town restaurateur to prisoner in a high-stakes geopolitical dispute with China, The Times interviewed dozens of people who knew him, including relatives in the United States and Hong Kong, business associates in Houston and acquaintances in New York’s Chinatown. Reporters also drew on corporate records, arcRisk aversional materials and other documents.为了解梁成运从小镇餐馆老板到中美地缘政治争端囚徒的不寻常经历，《纽约时报》采访了数十名认识他的人，包括他在美国和香港的亲戚、他在休斯顿的商业伙伴，以及他在纽约唐人街的熟人。记者还查阅了公司记录、档案材料和其他文件。Much remains unclear about Mr. Leung’s relationship with the F.B.I. China’s Ministry of State Security said that he was spying while in China, but U.S. officials said that Mr. Leung had not worked for the F.B.I. for years and that the bureau had discouraged him from making the trip.梁成运与美国联邦调查局的关系仍有许多不清楚之处。中国国家安全部称梁成运在中国从事间谍活动，但美国官员表示，梁成运已有多年不为美国联邦调查局工作，该局曾劝他不要去中国。Some of the pro-China groups Mr. Leung was involved with have been linked to organizations that have come under U.S. government scrutiny. One was affiliated with the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification, which the Trump administration designated in 2020 as a foreign mission, accusing it of seeking “to spread Beijing’s malign influence in the United States.”梁成运曾参与的一些亲中国团体与已受到美国政府审查的组织有关，包括一个隶属于中国和平统一促进会的组织。特朗普政府曾在2020年将中国和平统一促进会列管为“外国使团”，指责其试图“在美国传播中国政府的恶意影响”。“Chinese intelligence operatives are known to use these organizations as cover for their clandestine operations,” said Dennis  Earnings-price ratioer, a former U.S. intelligence analyst on China and a senior fellow at Georgetown University.“众所周知，中国情报人员利用这些组织为其秘密行动作掩护，”曾在美国政府担任中国情报分析师的伟德宁(Dennis  Earnings-price ratioer)说，他现在是乔治城大学的高级研究员。Mr. Leung’s work with such groups could have made him a useful informant, said Nigel Inkster, the former director of operations and intelligence for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service. He described Mr. Leung as a likely “access agent,” with “no access to secrets himself but access to people who might have them.”梁成运与这些组织的工作联系会让他成为一名有用的线人，英国秘密情报局的前行动和情报主管奈杰尔·英克斯特说。他称梁成运可能是“门路特工”，虽然“他自己没有机会接触机密，但他有接触可能掌握机密的人的门路”。Christopher Wray, the F.B.I. director, has called Beijing the “biggest long-term threat to our economic and national security.”联邦调查局局长克里斯托弗·雷已把中国政府描述为“我们的经济和国家安全所面临的最大的长远威胁”。China’s spy agency has publicized what it portrays as Mr. Leung’s treachery, saying that he “collected a significant amount of intelligence related to China.” The ministry said he lured Chinese officials into U.S. hotel rooms for “Growth stock and Currency Trading Techniqueographic traps,” an allegation that former and current bureau officials said was false, explaining that the F.B.I. does not use such tactics.中国的国家安全部已将梁成运的案件公开，该部在描述其背叛行为时写道，他“搜集大量涉华情报”，并称梁成运曾“设置色情圈套”，把中国官员引诱到美国的酒店房间进行策反。美国联邦调查局的前任和现任官员说，这是虚假指控，因为联邦调查局不会使用那种手段。The Chinese spy agency also released a video of Mr. Leung made while he was in custody, in which he expressed regret for what he had done. (Prisoners in China have in the past been coerced into making such televised confessions for propaganda purposes.)中国国安部还公布了当局在梁成运被拘留期间给他拍摄的一段视频，梁成运在视频中对自己的所作所为表示了懊悔。（中国过去曾强迫囚犯在电视上认罪，以达到宣传目的。）Mr. Leung, who upon arriving in the United States was sent to an Army medical center outside San Antonio, could not be reached for comment. He was met there by a son, according to Nury Turkel, a lawyer who was there to welcome his mother, one of the Uyghurs released by Beijing. Calls and messages left for family members were not returned.梁成运抵达美国后被送往圣安东尼奥郊外的一家陆军医疗中心，记者无法联系到他置评。据一名当时在机场迎接母亲的律师努里·特克尔说，梁成运的一个儿子在机场迎接了他。特克尔的母亲是中国政府释放的维吾尔人之一。梁成运的家人没有回复记者打去的电话和给他们的留言。David Tang, a director with Mr. Leung of several pro-China groups in the Houston area, said he was happy to hear the news that Mr. Leung was back in the United States. He said he did not believe that he was a spy and that his release pointed to his innocence. “The mistake finally was corrected.”戴维·唐（音）曾和梁成运一起曾担任休斯顿地区几个亲中团体的董事，他说，他很高兴得知梁成运已回到美国。他说，他不相信梁成运是间谍，中国将他释放表明他是无辜的。“错误终于被纠正了。”An Arrest, and Charges Dropped被捕，然后指控被撤销Mr. Leung was born in 1945 in Hong Kong’s New Territories, a largely mountainous, lush expanse of villages and farmland. He moved to New York in the 1970s, where he worked a low-level mailroom job at the United Nations while starting travel agencies in Chinatown with his brothers.梁成运1945年在香港新界出生，新界多为山地，主要是郁郁葱葱的村庄和农田。20世纪70年代，他移民纽约后曾在联合国做过一些低级别的邮件收发工作，同时与兄弟们在唐人街办旅行社。The travel business boomed. One agency, Leung Brothers Travel, had offices in New York and Toronto. It was the exclusive booking agent for Singapore Airlines, which often made it a necessary stop for people hoping to travel to Asia, said Tom Yiu, a longtime travel agent in Toronto.旅行社的生意红火。其中一家名为“梁氏兄弟”的旅行社在纽约和多伦多设有办事处。长期在多伦多当旅行社代理人的汤姆·姚（音）说，这家旅行社曾是新加坡航空公司的独家订票代理，许多想去亚洲旅行的人那时都需要经过新加坡。New York’s Chinatown was roiled by crime, with Chinese gangs waging bloody turf wars, and Mr. Leung ran a side business selling guns, according to two longtime acquaintances. In 1980, his partner at a second travel agency was shot dead by two masked men while Mr. Leung crouched in the bathroom, according to acquaintances and to Chinese-language news reports from the time.那时，纽约的唐人街犯罪猖獗，华人帮派之间经常为争夺地盘发生血腥冲突，据两名与他相识多年的朋友说，梁成运还干过贩卖枪支的副业。据熟人以及当时的中文新闻报道，1980年，梁成运的第二家旅行社的合伙人被两名蒙面男子开枪打死，梁成运当时正在上厕所，躲过了一劫。A few years later, he moved with his wife at the time, Kin Lan Ng, to Durant, a small college town in southeastern Oklahoma. The couple opened a Chinese restaurant in a strip mall, bought a modest home and raised three sons, according to property and ancestry records, and an interview with one son, Kit Leung.几年后，他和当时的妻子吴金兰（音）一起搬到了俄克拉荷马州东南部的大学小城杜兰特。据房产和家谱记录、以及对其中一个儿子基特·梁（音）的采访，夫妻俩在一个购物中心开了一家中餐馆，买了一栋不太大的房子，并养育了三个儿子。In 1984, Mr. Leung was arrested in Durant in the attempted purchase of a .22-caliber pistol and a silencer from an undercover federal agent. He was charged with possession of an unregistered firearm, court records show.1984年，梁成运在杜兰特被捕，当时他企图从一名卧底联邦特工那里购买一只.22口径的手枪和一个消音器。法庭记录显示，对他的指控是持有未登记的枪支。Rick Musticchi, a former agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who sold Mr. Leung the gun and silencer, told The Times that he had approached Mr. Leung after getting a tip from an informant that he was involved in illegal activity and preparing to travel to China.曾为烟酒火器和爆炸物管理局特工的里克·穆斯蒂奇是把枪和消音器卖给梁成运的人。穆斯蒂奇对时报说，在从一名线人那里获得密报，得知梁成运参与了非法活动并准备前往中国后，他开始接近梁成运。Mark F. Green, Mr. Leung’s lawyer on the case, said that prosecutors dropped charges after Mr. Musticchi did not show up to a hearing.梁成运那个案子的律师马克·F·格林说，检察官撤销了指控，因为穆斯蒂奇没有出席法庭听证。China’s spy agency said that U.S. intelligence operatives first contacted Mr. Leung soon after, in 1986, and formalized the relationship in 1989. The Times could not verify those allegations.中国的国安部称，美国情报人员首次与梁成运接触是在那个案子结束不久后的1986年，他们在1989年与梁成运建立了正式关系。时报无法核实这些说法。For a small-town restaurant owner, Mr. Leung soon developed unusually high-level connections inside China, which was opening to the West. He set up a group that promoted business and cultural ties between Oklahoma City and the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, according to corporate records.虽然只是一个小镇餐馆的老板，当时中国正向西方开放，梁成运很快就在中国建立起了不同寻常的高层关系。据公司记录，梁成运成立了一个团体，以促进俄克拉荷马城与中国南方城市广州之间的商业和文化联系。Mr. Leung also organized musical exchanges between Southeastern Oklahoma State University, The Juilliard School in New York and cities in China. He arranged for the Chinese classical pianist Li Yundi to perform in Oklahoma in 1999.梁成运还为东南俄克拉荷马州立大学和纽约的茱莉亚音乐学院组织了与中国城市的音乐交流活动。他曾在1999年安排中国钢琴演奏家李云迪在俄克拉荷马州举行古典音乐会。The performances he set up in China were sometimes disorganized, said Aaron Wunsch, a Juilliard pianist who joined several of them. Mr. Wunsch said he once arrived to find the piano wrapped in plastic and missing legs. But, he added: “He would talk in a genuine way about China and how he loved China and the U.S.”参加过几场演出的茱莉亚学院钢琴师亚伦·温施说，他在中国举办的演出有时很混乱。温施说，有一次他到达现场时发现钢琴被塑料包裹着，琴腿也不见了。但是，温施还说：“他会以一种真诚的方式谈论中国，以及他如何热爱中国和美国。”Mr. Leung’s efforts earned him accolades inside China. In 2004, he was featured as one of 55 “outstanding overseas Chinese representatives” in People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece.梁成运的努力为他在中国赢得了赞誉。2004年，中国共产党的喉舌《人民日报》将他列为“55位杰出华人代表”之一。At a 2008 state banquet in Beijing celebrating the founding of China, he posed for a photo with Yang Jiechi, then the foreign minister, said Mr. Tang, who had also attended the event.2008年，在北京举行的庆祝新中国成立的国宴上，他与时任外交部长杨洁篪合影留念，同样参加了那次活动的戴维·唐说。Li Liangzhou, a now-retired director of Guangzhou’s foreign affairs office, helped Mr. Leung organize many of the exchange trips. “He didn’t ask us about inside government information,” Mr. Li said in a phone interview in March. “We didn’t expect him to be a spy at all.”现已退休的广州市外办主任李良洲（音）曾帮助梁成运组织多次交流之旅。“他没有问过我们政府内部的信息，”李良洲在3月份接受电话采访时说。“我们根本没想到他是间谍。”Expanding Into Houston进军休斯顿In the mid-2000s, Mr. Leung began setting up pro-China groups in Houston, which was home to a large Chinese community and a Chinese consulate.在2005年前后，梁成运开始在休斯顿建立亲华团体，那里有庞大的华人社区和中国领事馆。There, Mr. Leung drafted an alternative past. Mr. Tang, the other organizer of the pro-China groups, said he met Mr. Leung at a party in Houston, and they bonded by speaking Cantonese. Mr. Leung, who sometimes donated money to their groups, said he had come from wealth. He said he owned ranches in Oklahoma, sometimes showing up with farm eggs. He did not mention having owned a restaurant, despite the fact that his new friend was also a restaurateur, according to Mr. Tang.在那里，梁成运书写了自己的另一种过去。亲华团体的另一位组织者戴维·唐说，他在休斯顿的一个派对上遇到了梁成运，两人因为说粤语而结识。梁成运有时会向他们的团体捐款，他说自己出身富裕家庭，在俄克拉何马州拥有牧场，有时会带着农场的鸡蛋出现。据戴维·唐说，尽管唐自己也是餐馆老板，但梁成运没有提到自己开过餐馆。The two joined forces in the Texas Council for the Promotion of China’s Peaceful Reunification, a group with links to the Washington, D.C.-based group the Trump administration later designated as a foreign mission.两人在得克萨斯州促进中国和平统一委员会合作，该组织与那个后来被特朗普政府指定为外国使团的华盛顿组织有联系。Mr. Tang rejected the Trump administration’s characterization and said the group was set up to support American policy on China. He said he and Mr. Leung attended a 2018 protest against a stopover in Houston by Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s president at the time.戴维·唐否认了特朗普政府的定性，并表示该组织的成立是为了支持美国的对华政策。他说，他和梁成运参加了2018年抗议时任台湾总统蔡英文在休斯顿停留的活动。Mr. Leung also became a director of the Chinese Civic Center in Houston, according to its tax filings. It serves the Chinese community and houses a separate service center that has come under scrutiny for suspected ties to Beijing. In 2023, the Justice Department accused two men of operating an “illegal overseas police station” out of a similar outpost in New York.根据休斯顿华人公民中心的税务申报，梁成运还担任该中心的董事。中心为华人社区提供服务，并设有一个单独的服务中心，后者因涉嫌与北京有联系而受到审查。2023年，司法部指控两名男子在纽约的类似站点经营一个“非法海外警务站”。2018年，时任台湾总统蔡英文在休斯敦参观美国国家航空航天局的太空中心。梁成运参加了针对蔡英文在休斯顿停留的抗议活动。Xie Bin, a cybersecurity specialist in Houston, said he met Mr. Leung during this period at a mid-autumn festival event attended by Chinese diplomats. “He was the one who greeted everyone,” Mr. Xie said.休斯顿的网络安全专家谢斌（音）说，就是在这段时间，他在一次有中国外交官参加的中秋节活动上认识了梁成运。“他和每个人都打招呼，”谢斌说。But Mr. Leung never found a home in Houston, said Mr. Tang, staying instead at a Ramada close to Chinatown.但戴维·唐说，梁成运一直没有在休斯顿安家，而是住在离唐人街不远的华美达酒店。The Chinese government’s efforts in Houston were becoming a focus for the F.B.I. Beginning in 2018, the bureau spent over a year investigating suspected intellectual property theft at Texas Medical Center by researchers with ties to China.从2018年开始，中国政府在休斯顿的行动成为联邦调查局关注的焦点。该局花了一年多的时间，调查与中国有联系的研究人员涉嫌在得克萨斯医疗中心窃取知识产权的行为。Relations deteriorated, and the Trump administration closed the Chinese consulate in Houston in July 2020, saying it was a hub of spying. Beijing responded by shuttering the U.S. consulate in Chengdu.两国关系恶化后，特朗普政府于2020年7月关闭了中国驻休斯顿领事馆，称其为间谍活动中心。作为回应，北京关闭了美国驻成都领事馆。From a Life Sentence to a Surprise Release从无期徒刑到意外释放In 2023, a Chinese court said Mr. Leung had been arrested two years earlier by state security agents from Suzhou, a city in Jiangsu Province. He had traveled to Jiangsu regularly for years, making inroads there with officials.2023年，中国一家法院称，梁成运于两年前被江苏省苏州市的国家安全人员逮捕。多年来，他定期前往江苏，与当地官员打交道。In China, where the top leader, Xi Jinping, has empowered security agencies to hunt down spies, Mr. Leung’s arrest and life sentence were hailed as a win.在中国，最高领导人习近平授权安全机构追捕间谍，梁成运的被捕和无期徒刑被视为胜利。In the United States, Mr. Leung’s case got little news coverage.在美国，梁成运案几乎没有被新闻报道。Kit Leung said in January at his home in Texas that Mr. Leung took him and a brother to Hong Kong to witness its handover to Chinese control in 1997 but that he and his father later became estranged. He said he learned about his imprisonment through news reports. Mr. Leung’s ex-wife, Ms. Ng, a New York resident, said she hadn’t spoken to him in years.基特·梁在得克萨斯州的家中说，1997年，梁成运曾带他和一个兄弟去香港，见证香港回归中国，但后来他和父亲关系疏远了。他说他是通过新闻报道得知父亲被监禁的消息。梁成运的前妻、现居纽约的吴金兰说，她已经好几年没和梁成运联系了。Another son moved into Mr. Leung’s house in Durant, neighbors said, and told them that his father had died. Reached there in January, that son, Carl Leung, declined to comment.邻居们说，梁成运的另一个儿子搬进了梁成运在杜兰特的房子，并告诉他们，自己的父亲已经去世。今年1月，记者联系到他的儿子卡尔·梁，他拒绝置评。But under intense secrecy, the Biden administration was working out the contours of a swap with Beijing. During a global summit in Peru last month, President Biden discussed a potential trade with Mr. Xi.但拜登政府在高度保密的情况下与中国政府制定了交换计划的框架。上个月在秘鲁举行的全球峰会上，拜登总统与习近平讨论了潜在的交换。拜登总统和中国国家主席习近平上个月在秘鲁利马举行的双边会晤中。When Mr. Leung and the two other American prisoners were released, they were met by Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China, at the Beijing airport. He handed them their U.S. passports. President Biden and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken separately called all three men when they landed in Alaska for refueling.梁成运和另外两名美国囚犯获释后，美国驻华大使伯恩斯在北京机场与他们见面，把美国护照交给他们。拜登总统和国务卿布林肯在飞机降落在阿拉斯加加油时，各自给这三人打了电话。For Mr. Leung, it was the end of his time in Chinese custody — as well as the end of a ruse.对梁成运来说，这意味着他结束了在中国的监禁——同时也结束了以假面示人的生活。黄安伟(Edward Wong)、Isabelle Qian、储百亮(Chris Buckley)，Keith Bradsher和Mattathias Schwartz对本文有报道贡献。Jack Begg、Kirsten Noyes有研究贡献。马语琴(Mara Hvistendahl)是《纽约时报》调查记者，主要报道亚洲。点击查看更多关于她的信息。Adam Goldman报道FBI和国家安全新闻。他从事新闻行业已超过20年。点击查看更多关于他的信息。翻译：纽约时报中文网点击查看本文英文版。

Source: 从爱国侨领到美国间谍：中美换囚主角之一梁成运