The mission of the station was to harass opponents of the Chinese regime and democracy activists. It is estimated that China has more than a hundred illegal police stations abroad.
The US Federal Police FBI reported on Monday about a special operation.
The FBI had discovered a Chinese-run secret police station in the Chinatown neighborhood in central New York.
According to the prosecutors, the mission of the station has been to harass opponents of the Chinese regime.
The FBI arrested two American citizens in the same connection Lu Jianwang’s and Chen Jinping. They face charges of acting as agents of a foreign power and obstructing the operation of the judiciary.
There were hints about the matter already last year, when the Safeguard Defenders NGO, headquartered in Spain, said that China had established secret police stations in different parts of the world, whose activities were coordinated by the Chinese police authority.
According to the BBC (you will switch to another service) there are more than a hundred stations in total and they are in 53 different countries.
China has responded to the accusations by claiming that the centers in question are run by volunteers and that their purpose is to help Chinese citizens with visa and residence permit issues, as well as provide them with other assistance services.
– We will not tolerate China persecuting democracy activists who have fled to the United States, federal prosecutor Breon Peace said at the Brooklyn courthouse as the charges were read to the Chinese men arrested by the FBI.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, responded to the accusations immediately.
– The charges are fabricated and they are just political manipulation aimed at tarnishing China’s reputation, he said.
Helped “locate runaways”
Lu and Chen both worked for an NGO that has declared its mission to provide a community for people from China’s Fujian province.
The organization was based in an ordinary apartment building in Chinatown, where, according to prosecutors, it filled an entire floor.
According to Peace, of course Chinese citizens were also helped in the premises to renew their driver’s licenses, but also for many more threatening activities. Of course, the renewal of driver’s licenses should have been reported to the US authorities.
For example, last year the Chinese government asked Lu to locate a Chinese democracy activist living in California.
In 2018, Lu had tried to persuade a Chinese living in exile in the United States to return to his homeland.
Before being caught, the men had destroyed all communications they had with the Chinese government.