US Attorney General Merrick Garland accused - on Monday - China of interfering in the US judicial system, by announcing the indictments of 13 Chinese nationals he said worked for Chinese intelligence.
Garland explained that three separate cases showed that "the Chinese government has sought to interfere with the rights and freedoms of individuals in the United States, and to undermine our judicial system that upholds these rights."
"The Ministry of Justice will not tolerate any attempt by an outside force to undermine the rule of law on which our democracy was founded," he added.
Among the cases that Garland enumerated, the case of seven Chinese accused of trying to force their citizen residing in the United States to return to China as part of a forcible return campaign led by Beijing.
Two of the accused were arrested Thursday in New York.
In a second case, two suspected Chinese intelligence agents were charged with attempting to obstruct prosecutions in the United States against the Chinese telecom giant "Huawei".
In the third case, 4 Chinese nationals were charged "in connection with a long-running intelligence campaign targeting persons in the United States to work for the benefit of the People's Republic of China."
The announcement of the arrests comes the day after Chinese President Xi Jinping won a third term at the head of the Chinese Communist Party and the country.
Huawei was accused in 2018 of misleading HSBC and other banks about its business in Iran, which is under US sanctions.
In 2020, other charges were added to the case, including conspiracy to steal trade secrets from 6 US technology companies, and helping Iran track protesters during anti-government demonstrations in 2009. The company pleaded not guilty.