Clandestine Chinese ‘police stations’ scattered across US, report reveals – FBI arrests 2 in connection with CCP outpost in NYC

The FBI recently announced the arrest of two individuals accused of running a Chinese “police station” in New York City. The news follows a September report that revealed roughly 100 clandestine outposts operated by the Chinese Communist Party scattered around the world.

WNBC reported that the FBI detained 61-year-old “Harry” Lu Jianwang and 59-year-old Chen Jinping on Monday morning. The two were charged with conspiring to act as agents for the Chinese government.

Jianwang and Jinping were allegedly working out of a CCP-run police station located above a noodle restaurant in Manhattan’s Chinatown, the New York Post revealed.

The suspects were accused of spying on, harassing, and threatening “wanted” Chinese nationals residing in the United States, according to three filed complaints.

“While acting under the direction and control of an MPS [China’s Ministry of Public Security] Official, Lu and Chen helped open and operate the clandestine police station,” the Department of Justice said. “None of the participants in the scheme informed the US government that they were helping the PRC government surreptitiously open and operate an illegal MPS police station on US soil.”

The arrests followed a September 2022 report from Safeguard Defenders, a human rights organization based in Madrid, that revealed roughly 100 illegal Chinese police stations posted worldwide.

According to Safeguard Defenders, there are additional stations in New York City and Los Angeles, as well as “overseas service stations” in San Francisco, Houston, Nebraska, and Minnesota.

The outpost operations are believed to be hidden behind nonprofit organizations run by United Front Work Department, a CCP-run agency tasked with overseas ethnic and religious affairs, a spokesperson for Safeguard Defenders told the Post.

“We found at least four listed in the U.S. by PRC [People’s Republic of China] public security authorities, plus flagged an additional four overseas Chinese service centers in the U.S. set up by the UFWD networks responsible for manning the stations,” the spokesperson stated.

The FBI confirmed in November that it was aware of the clandestine Manhattan police outpost.

CCP officials pushed back on the claims and contended that its “service centers” were run by volunteers who do not perform any policing duties. However, a New York Times article released in January revealed that the Chinese government had described its worldwide outposts as policing facilities.

Kurt Ronnow, acting assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division, said, “This case serves as a powerful reminder that the People’s Republic of China will stop at nothing to bend people to their will and silence messages they don’t want anyone to hear.”

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