(UnitedVoice.com) – The Chinese government has a robust spy operation across the world, including in the US. In October 2022, media organizations reported on an alleged Chinese police station operating in New York City under the wing of a charitable organization that had been blacklisted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). At the time, the New York Post reported the police station, which was located in lower Manhattan, was one of more than 100 such operations across the world.
Recently, the Department of Justice announced arrests related to the covert station.
Arrests
On Monday, April 17, the Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs announced a complaint was unsealed in federal court that charged two defendants with allegedly operating the police station in lower Manhattan. The station was reportedly created at the request of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS).
Law enforcement arrested the defendants, 59-year-old Chen Jinping and 61-year-old “Harry” Lu Jianwang, at their homes that morning. Their first appearances were before US Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes Jr. According to the complaint against them, they are charged with obstructing justice by destroying evidence. The New York Times reported that evidence was text messages between them and their MPS handlers. They are also charged with conspiring to act as agents for the People’s Republic of China.
The police station was shut down last fall after the FBI learned of it. Kurt Ronnow, the acting assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division, called it “simply outrageous” that the MPS got away with “establishing a secret, illegal police station” on American soil.
US Attorney Breon Peace, who works for the Eastern District of New York, accused the Chinese government of a “flagrant violation of our nation’s sovereignty.” He went on to say that all of those involved were doing Beijing’s bidding. They were allegedly helping the Chinese government locate dissidents in America and tried to obstruct the investigation by deleting their communications.
Peace emphatically stated covert Chinese police stations like the one in Manhattan have “no place here in New York City — or any American community.”
More Defendants
US authorities also have two related cases against 34 Chinese cops who allegedly harassed Chinese nationals who were living in the Big Apple. Another eight Chinese officials are accused of telling a Zoom employee in China to kick dissidents off of the platform.
Officials in other countries, including Canada, have called on the Chinese government to shut down similar operations.
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