A member of New York City’s Chinese dissident community has pleaded guilty to acting as an agent of the Chinese Communist Party.

In 2018, speaking with the New York Times about a book in which he was featured, Tang offered a hint of disillusionment about the role of a dissident abroad.

“In the first year you speak brave, bold words,” he said. “In the second, nonsense. By the third, you have nothing to say at all.”