China's Foreign Ministry on Friday criticized the U.S. indictment of a former Air China Ltd. employee for smuggling packages on behalf of Chinese military personnel stationed at China's U.N. mission in New York.

Ying Lin, who prosecutors say also helped a Chinese national flee the country last year amid an FBI probe, was charged in an indictment filed in federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday after being arrested in August 2015 on an earlier charge.

The new indictment alleged Lin, while working for Air China at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, helped smuggle packages onto flights from Chinese military officers at its U.N. mission and employees at a Chinese Consulate.