U.S. Probing Alleged Harassment by Beijing Envoys of Chinese Students

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government has been investigating allegations that Chinese officials have been harassing Chinese students in the United States who are critical of the Beijing government, the State Department said Friday.

The department’s statement followed allegations by a defector from the Chinese Embassy who reported that embassy officers were ordered to intimidate critics.

The comments of the defector, Xu Lin, appeared in Friday’s editions of The Times.

State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said that as the investigations proceed, “We will continue to take appropriate action to afford Chinese students here the full protection of United States law.”

“We have advised the Chinese government on several occasions that harassment of its citizens in the United States would violate our laws and would damage our bilateral relationship,” she said.

When he defected last week, Xu, a third secretary at the embassy, took documents that he said prove the extent of Beijing’s crackdown on dissidents. A Chinese Embassy spokesman said that the allegations in the documents are “rumors.”