News that the Justice Department had filed conspiracy charges against a former China-based Zoom Video executive seems sure to shine a laser focus on the high-flying videoconference company in the coming days. Zoom said it had fired the executive and was cooperating with the government. The allegations underlying the charges are sure to shock people in the tech industry and beyond.

The government alleges the executive, at the direction of the Chinese government, terminated at least four video meetings hosted on Zoom commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, mostly organized and attended by people in the U.S. including Zoom customers in the New York area. The Chinese government used information provided by the executive to retaliate against participants who lived in China, the U.S. government said.