A U.S. criminal complaint was filed on Oct. 1 against five Chinese students who were caught last year at a lake in northern Michigan, sometime around midnight. The students had travelled from their school in Ann Arbor, in August 2023 “to see shooting stars” as one student explained. The lake, however, was not far from the Camp Grayling training base, where various National Guard units were conducting a large-scale exercise at the time.
A sergeant major with the Utah National Guard confronted them, apparently making them leave. Further, it seems that there were somehow soldiers from Taiwan involved in the exercise with the U.S. National Guard units. The students completed their exchange program with the University of Michigan and returned home. The FBI affidavit alleges that the students communicated on WeChat last December about deleting the photos that they had taken of their trip to the lake, and that they may have photos of “vital defense sites” in the U.S. They are charged not with spying on Camp Grayling, but for deleting the photos and lying to the FBI.
It is not clear why the criminal complaint was filed this week, as there is no plan to act on the complaint against the students living in China. The spokesperson for the Detroit U.S. Attorney’s Office explained, “Should they come into contact with U.S. authorities, they will be arrested and face these charges.”
The FBI apparently did not check whether there were shooting stars for the students to make a special trip, but if they had, they would have discovered that the rather special Perseid Meteor shower peaked at that time in August 2023. None of the meteors is presently facing charges.
