The Weird, Twisting Tale of How China Spied on Alysa Liu and Her Dad

On November 16, In 2021, Matthew Ziburis sat in his car in a residential neighborhood in the Bay Area, tracking an “enemy,” as he put it. A veteran of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, Ziburis previously served in Iraq. But during this mission, he was working at the request of the Chinese government. The targets that fall day were American citizens: Arthur Liu and his teenage daughter, Alysa.

Arthur’s personal story was an example of the American dream. As a university student, he participated in the 1989 pro-democracy movement in China. After the Tiananmen Square crackdown that year, he fled to the United States and settled in California. Arthur devoted a small fortune and an equal amount of energy to making Alysa a figure skating phenomenon. As a national champion at age 13, she joked with Jimmy Fallon about Tonight’s show, and was at the time on track to represent America at the following year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Ziburis was watching Liu’s house when he called Arthur, falsely claiming he was a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee who was to discuss an upcoming trip to Beijing, Arthur said. Ziburis was adamant that Arthur fax him copies of his and his daughter’s passports as part of a travel “readiness check,” Liu told WIRED. This seemed strange to Arthur. During his many years in the service of sporting bodies, he had never responded to such a request. Alysa’s rep did not respond to a request for comment.

Ziburis’ surveillance of Arthur and Alysa Liu that November day five years ago was just one episode in a bizarre saga that stretched from California to Beijing, affected New York City mayors and members of the U.S. Congress, and saw two people plead guilty and two others awaiting trial.

Unbeknownst to Ziburis, as he sat outside Aurthur and Alysa’s Northern California home, he too was being watched.

Ziburis was allegedly sent to Northern California by Frank Liu, a self-styled fixer in the Chinese community on Long Island, New York, who was in turn taking orders from a person in China named Qiang Sun. According to American authorities, Sun was working at the behest of the Chinese government. A concerned private investigator who once worked for Frank Liu had alerted the FBI to Frank’s escapades and was helping authorities. Law enforcement was already on Ziburis by the time he arrived. Anthony Ricco, Ziburis’ attorney, did not respond to requests for comment.

The agents watched as Ziburis inspected Arthur’s home and toured his law office. The portly man sulking in Arthur’s office also attracted the attention of a neighbor, who approached Ziburis and asked if he needed help, Arthur said. Apparently concerned, the FBI called Arthur to warn him that Ziburis was heading towards his home. At that point, partly because of the harassment, Arthur and Alysa were boarding a plane to leave California. “It was like a movie,” Arthur says.

Alysa’s performance in Beijing in 2022 was disappointing. Exhausted, she retired from the sport. Then, in February, after returning to the ice after a two-year hiatus, Alysa became the first American figure skater to win Olympic gold since 2002, intentionally without her father by her side.

Despite her complex and highly publicized relationship with Arthur, Alysa’s success — punctuated by her piercing smile, her raccoon tail dyeing job and her palpable joy for her sport — has reignited interest in the long-running case of transnational repression against her and her father. Human rights advocates and researchers have in recent years documented Beijing’s efforts to suppress critical voices, even those residing abroad or whose perceived transgressions date back decades.