Trial Begins for Alleged Chinese Agents Accused of Forcing Dissidents to Return Home

Former NYPD sergeant Michael McMahon and two other men are on trial for allegedly intimidating and threatening a New Jersey couple on behalf of the Chinese government to force them to return to China.
The trial is the first in the US related to China's "Operation Fox Hunt," a global campaign to coerce Chinese fugitives abroad to return home, often through harassment and stalking.
Prosecutors say the three defendants conspired to act as illegal agents of China to stalk and harass the couple, while the defendants claim they did not know they were working for China.
The target of their harassment, a former Chinese government official named Xu Jin who fled to the US years ago, was seen as an enemy of the Communist Party, according to prosecutors.
The trial comes amid rising tensions between the US and China, with the US accusing China of human rights abuses and illegal surveillance both domestically and abroad.