US citizen convicted of running secret Chinese 'police station': How he operated
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "US citizen convicted of running secret Chinese 'police station': How he operated")
Lu Jianwang was convicted in New York Photograph: (X)
Lu Jianwang was convicted in New York for acting as an illegal Chinese foreign agent and obstructing justice by deleting messages tied to alleged efforts to harass pro-democracy dissidents. Prosecutors said he helped run a covert Chinese police outpost in Manhattan’s Chinatown.
A US jury convicted a man named "Harry" Lu Jianwang for his role in running a clandestine Chinese "police station" in New York as part of a campaign to monitor US-based dissidents. Lu and another man, Chen Jinping, were arrested in April 2023 and accused of operating the secret police station, which operated from an office building, on behalf of China's Ministry of Public Security. Canada and several European governments have cracked down on similar "police stations," whose existence was first revealed by Spain-based rights group Safeguard Defenders. Now, they face up to 30 years in prison for acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government in setting up and running the "overseas police station" in Manhattan's Chinatown, the Justice Department said in a statement.
FBI agents first searched the outpost in October 2022 and found a blue banner reading "Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, New York, USA," referring to a city in southeastern China. "The New York police station was part of a global initiative by the MPS (Ministry of Public Security) to establish overseas police service stations all over the world," the Justice Department said.
Also Read: Xi wants China-US to transcend 'Thucydides Trap': What the term means and what are its origins
According to Safeguard Defenders, the stations have been involved in pressuringChinesenationals to return home to face criminal charges. "Lu Jianwang used a police station in New York City to target PRC (People's Republic of China) dissidents in furtherance of the Chinese government's political agenda," said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C Barnacle Jr. "Lu was tasked by his MPS handler with collecting information on behalf of the Chinese government, such as locating a pro-democracy advocate who had fled from China and moved to the US," it added.
China's reaction
Trending Stories
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
China's government has called the charges in the case "fabricated" and part of an effort to smear the country's image. Beijing has said there are centers outside China run by local volunteers, not Chinese police officers, that aim to help Chinese citizens renew documents and offer other services. John Carman, a lawyer for Lu, said his client agreed to open the center to help Chinese nationals who were unable to travel to the country to renew documents due to the COVID pandemic. But Carman said Lu was not tasked with doing so by the Chinese government. A co-defendant arrested alongside Lu, Chen Jinping, pleaded guilty in 2024 to conspiring to act as an unregistered Chinese agent. The arrests followed a 2022 investigation published by Spain-based advocacy group Safeguard Defenders that reported China had set up overseas "service stations," including in New York, that illegally worked with Chinese police to pressure fugitives to return to China.
