Federal prosecutors in Michigan have charged a Chinese national with acting in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. attorney general, according to a criminal complaint filed Sept. 11 and reviewed by The Bureau.

Di Jin, 41, a resident of Tianjin who also uses the names Sophie Jin and Xin Sui, is accused of gathering information in the United States on behalf of individuals linked to China’s Ministry of State Security, or MSS. The Detroit News reported that the case was filed in the Eastern District of Michigan and is being investigated by the FBI’s Detroit counterintelligence division.

Jin arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Sept. 8 aboard a Delta Air Lines flight from Shanghai, according to the FBI affidavit obtained by The Bureau. She told U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers that she planned to spend 11 days visiting an 81-year-old friend in Washington. During a secondary inspection, officers found the friend’s business card, which identified the person as a U.S. government official.

Investigators then questioned Jin about an April message in which she allegedly told the U.S. contact that “Xi’s team” had recently approached her. According to The Bureau’s account of the affidavit, the message referred to subjects including procurement, rare-earth metals, U.S. Treasury bonds, trade mechanisms and tariff exemptions for billions of dollars in non-sensitive goods.

Jin told investigators that people associated with a think tank she believed was connected to the Chinese government had asked her to travel to Washington to collect information. She also said a Chinese contact using an alias had instructed her to delete their communications before traveling to the United States, and that she had deleted messages shortly before her latest trip, according to The Bureau.

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After further questioning, Jin allegedly acknowledged conducting intelligence-gathering activities in the United States for Chinese intelligence officials who, in return, helped advance her business interests in China. The Detroit News cited the FBI affidavit as saying Jin “ultimately admitted” that she had gathered intelligence on behalf of Chinese intelligence officials.

Contacts with Chinese intelligence allegedly date to 2012

According to the affidavit reviewed by The Bureau, Jin told investigators that the MSS’s Tianjin branch first approached her in 2012 because of her connections to Airbus. At the time, she was undergoing pilot training in Los Angeles but did not complete the program. Chinese officials allegedly asked her to obtain information from an event in the United States and bring it back to China.

Jin later traveled repeatedly to the United States. The Detroit News reported that she had entered the country at least seven times on B-1/B-2 visitor visas since 2013. In 2016, she also attended a national security-related program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School and later told investigators that she had met “influential people” there, according to the complaint.

The affidavit alleges that Jin established contact with intelligence personnel in Shanghai in 2024. Before subsequent trips to the United States, she allegedly received instructions in Shanghai and reported back after meeting U.S. contacts. The Bureau reported that she was also told she could claim to work for a Beijing think tank if questioned about her activities. The same pattern allegedly occurred during trips in June 2025 and March 2026.

Investigators also recovered communications between Jin and U.S. contacts from her phones. In July 2024, after Jin traveled from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, one contact warned her that it might not be a good time to visit. According to the affidavit obtained by The Bureau, the contact wrote: “Don’t think you should come now—altho [sic] it would be great to see you,” and expressed concern that meeting her could draw security scrutiny.

Justice Department database checks conducted on Sept. 10 found that Di Jin, Sophie Jin and Xin Sui had not notified the attorney general that she was acting as an agent of a foreign government, according to the complaint reviewed by The Bureau.

Original article