Two New York residents have been arrested by federal agents for allegedly running a Chinese “secret police station” in Manhattan’s Chinatown district.
The arrests were made as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s crackdown on China’s alleged targeting of dissidents. Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, were charged with conspiring to act as agents of China’s government without informing U.S. authorities and obstruction of justice.
The two were later released on bond following an initial appearance in Brooklyn federal court.
The charges come after an investigation by Spain-based advocacy group, Safeguard Defenders, found that China had set up illegal overseas “service stations,” including one in New York, that worked with Chinese police to pressure fugitives to return to China.
However, the Chinese government has denied the existence of such “service stations” and claimed that centers outside China are run by local volunteers, not Chinese police officers, to help Chinese citizens renew documents and offer other services.
The Department of Justice has been ramping up its probes into what it calls “transnational repression” by U.S. adversaries such as China and Iran to intimidate political opponents living in the United States.
The top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, Breon Peace, emphasized the government’s zero-tolerance policy towards the Chinese government’s persecution of pro-democracy activists who have sought refuge in the U.S.
In addition to the arrests of the two New York residents, prosecutors on Monday unveiled charges against 34 Chinese officials for allegedly operating a “troll farm” and harassing dissidents online, including disrupting their meetings on U.S. technology platforms.
They also added eight Chinese government officials as defendants in a case announced in 2020 charging a former China-based executive of Zoom Video Communications Inc with disrupting video meetings commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
However, all the officials charged are still at large.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the U.S, Liu Pengyu said; “By initiating prosecution against Chinese citizens under the pretext of ‘transnational repression’, the U.S. side is exercising long-arm jurisdiction based on fabricated charges. This is sheer political manipulation, and the purpose is to smear China’s image.”
