Chinese National Accused Of Illegally Voting In 2024 Fled US Before Trump’s Return To Office, Feds Say

A Chinese national allegedly voted in the last presidential election and fled the country one day before President Donald Trump’s inauguration into office, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Haoxiang Gao, a Chinese man attending the University of Michigan at the time, unlawfully registered to vote and cast a ballot in the 2024 presidential election in Ann Arbor, Michigan, federal prosecutors are alleging in a new indictment. The DOJ suspects he was able to register his name by using his University of Michigan student ID and then lied about his citizenship on his voter registration application.

“Illegal voting is a serious crime that cast doubt on our elections and serves to disenfranchise United States citizens by diluting their power at the ballot box,” U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon said Tuesday in a prepared statement. “But illegal voting by a foreign national who is from a country controlled by a communist party dictatorship – with no modern history or tradition of democratic government – is beyond the pale.”

The Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s office and the Michigan Secretary of State’s office first revealed in October that an unnamed Chinese national had illegally voted, just days before the 2024 presidential election between Trump and then-Vice President Kamala Harris. However, few details about the identity of the individual were provided at the time.

Upon being slapped with state offenses, Gao was granted a $5,000 personal bond by a state court with conditions — which included he surrender his passport and he remain within Michigan state lines for the duration of his case, according to the DOJ. While Gao did hand over his passport, he allegedly jumped bail and fled the U.S. on a flight bound for Shanghai, China, on Jan. 19, one day before Trump’s second presidential inauguration.

Gao was able to pass through Detroit Metropolitan Airport security using a People’s Republic of China passport in his name, but bearing a different number from the passport he handed over to the University of Michigan police, according to Customs and Border Protection records.