How Chinese Intelligence Tried to Target a US Olympic Skater's Father

Matthew Ziburis, one of five men charged in March 2022, posed as a US Olympic Committee official to trick Arthur Liu into giving up his passport number. Liu is the father of figure skater Alysa Liu and a Chinese dissident who had fled to the United States. The attempted theft happened three months before the Beijing Olympics. The FBI had already warned Liu in October 2021 that Chinese intelligence was targeting him.

The case reveals how far Chinese espionage operations reach — not just after classified information or corporate secrets, but into the families of American athletes competing on the international stage. Federal prosecutors held off announcing charges until after the Olympics ended, a deliberate choice that let Alysa Liu compete without the distraction or potential security risk of a public case bearing her name.