The secret police stations that control the Chinese diaspora

The guilty plea of a naturalized American citizen accused of running a secret police station for the Chinese authorities in New York’s Chinatown has flagged the fact that such operations are rife across the globe.

Sixty-year-old Chen Jinping was arrested with co-defendant Lu Jianwang, 59, in 2023 for opening and running this police outpost in 2022 on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

These outfits masquerade as service stations for Chinese nationals overseas, helping them with basic paperwork and renewing Chinese documents.

But, in a more sinister vein, they also pursue leads on Chinese pro-democracy activists living in the US, according to the federal authorities.

Chen, who owned up to acting as an agent for the Chinese government, faces the possibility of five years behind bars when he is sentenced next year.

His “partner in crime”, Lu Jianwang has pleaded not guilty, and his case has yet to come to trial.

Jianwang is accused of putting pressure on a Chinese exile to return to China and also helping to find a pro-democracy activist in California for the Chinese authorities.

The pair’s messages to and from the MPS have been deleted, a move considered by the US authorities to have obstructed the course of justice.

Apparently, there are as many as 100 of these so-called police stations operating around the world in 53 different countries.

Human rights groups have accused the Chinese authorities of using such outposts to keep a check on Chinese nationals overseas.

Last year, 34 agents working with the MPS were charged with intimidating Chinese dissidents living in the US via false social media accounts while also posting official Chinese government propaganda, the BBC reports.