The Wall Street Journal: Zoom executive in China charged with disrupting Tiananmen videoconference commemorations

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Federal prosecutors charged a China-based executive at U.S. company Zoom Video Communications Inc. ZM, +1.09%   with conspiring to disrupt videoconference commemorations of the crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests.

The detailed, 47-page complaint unsealed Friday by prosecutors in Brooklyn highlights a tension global internet companies face trying to operate in the U.S. and China.

The complaint, which was accompanied by an arrest warrant, accuses Xinjiang Jin with acting at the direction of Chinese law-enforcement and intelligence officers to disrupt four Tiananmen commemorations earlier this year. The court documents identify Jin as an employee of a U.S.-based telecommunications company. The company is Zoom, according to people familiar with the matter.

Zoom didn’t respond to requests for comment or to confirm whether Jin is still an employee. Prosecutors said he is not in custody. Jin, who court documents say also goes by “Julien Jin,” didn’t respond to an email sent to a Zoom company address with that name.

An expanded version of this report appears at WSJ.com.