- Tiananmen Square dissident-turned-New Yorker says he'll run for Congress despite bizarre "honey trap" plot.
- "That's made me more brave," Yan Xiong tells Insider of China's plot. "I want to win election."
- "I have a family! Children!" he says of the plot. "I'm a pastor! That's the stupidest thing."
Tiannanmen Square protester turned congressional hopeful Yan Xiong says he's not surprised at all to hear that a spy from China wanted to send him a prostitute.
Neither is he surprised that the spy considered planting child pornography on him or running him over with a car, as alleged Wednesday by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.
What suprises him, Xiong told Insider, is that the Chinese government, whom the feds blame for the bizarre plot, thought they could tempt him, in classic spy-movie, honey-trap fashion, into any manner of indiscretion, and thus derail his planned run for Congress in the New York district now held by Democrat Jerry Nadler.
"I live an honest life!" Xiong, of Brooklyn, said excitedly, when asked about the plot.
"I have a family!" added the retired Army chaplain and Iraq war veteran, who goes by "X-Man" with friends. "Seven children!"
Prosecutors say Chinese operative Qiming Lin, 59, was sent to the US by his government's secret police last year to dig dirt on Xiong, who was granted asylum after fleeing to the US from China, and who has been an American citizen for 27 years.
"Create something," Lin allegedly told an unnamed private eye, according to the indictment. "Go find a girl ... or see how he goes for prostitution, take some photos, something of that nature."
The feds say they captured the motive on tape.
"Right now, we don't want him to be elected," said Lin, who is now back in China, according to the indictment, which charges him with conspiracy to commit interstate harassment.
"It wouldn't work. I'm a pastor! I wear a uniform!" Xiong said in a phone interview of the sex-trap plot, sounding outraged, but also laughing.
"That's the stupidest thing," he added. "I'm not that kind of guy."
Xiong said he understands China giving it a try, though.
"I was a Tiannanmen Square student leader in 1989," he told Insider.
"It's common sense. I am runnning for Congress, so they tried to trap me or make a scandal for me," he said.
News of the plot worried his wife, he said, but he himself is undeterred.
"That's made me more brave," insisted Xiong, who has yet to officially declare he is running, but who has set up a campaign website.
"I want to win election. I want to help a lot of people."
