In the Press...
The Telegraph article featuring Smith's commentary'Inside New York's first secret Chinese police station''Pro-democracy activist says he was "targeted with messages, death threats and calls" from the outpost'By Iona Cleave In a drab office block in Manhattan’s Chinatown, sandwiched between a ramen bar and a supermarket, the long arm of the Chinese state had been hiding in plain sight. A banner on one of its wall identified it as “The Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station”. In the first case of its kind, the man accused of running the first known Chinese outpost on American soil was convicted of acting as an “illegal foreign agent” on May 13. US prosecutors said the police station in the heart of New York City – which was disguised as a community centre – was under orders from Beijing to monitor, harass and silence Chinese dissidents.
One of its targets was Xi Jie, a pro-Democracy activist who fled China and now lives in California. Mr Xi, the key witness at the trial, told The Telegraph: “I was targeted with messages, death threats and calls – once more than 170 in one day. I called the police, but there was not much they could do.”
The police station was raided by the FBI in October 2022, sending shockwaves through the intelligence community and raising the obvious question: “Where are the rest?” Laura Harth leads research on China at Safeguard Defenders, the human rights organisation that tipped off the FBI about the building. She said: “We know this is the tip of the iceberg, and there will be more.” The New York outpost is believed to have been part of a network of 102 covert police stations around the world acting under the command of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.
A 2022 report by Safeguard Defenders exposed three such operations in the UK. In 2023, Britain said that China had closed the alleged stations. Last week, a court revealed that Beijing had been running shadow police operations at an outpost in Central London. Bill Yuen, 66, was jailed for eight years on a charge of assisting a foreign intelligence service. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the world’s most prolific and sophisticated perpetrator of transnational repression. It targets dissidents, journalists and ethnic and religious minorities across the globe in an effort to control its diaspora and silence protests. Yana Gorokhovskaia, director of research at Freedom House, an independent watchdog, told The Telegraph: “Embedded in its policy towards Chinese citizens overseas is the idea that China and its laws extend far beyond its borders.”
Ms Gorokhovskaia said the campaign was “very extensive” in the US, but rarely documented. Representative Chris Smith, a senior member of the House foreign affairs committee and co-chairman of the congressional-executive commission on China, told The Telegraph it was “an active and pressing danger to the American people”. Mr Smith said: “With complete impunity, the CCP harasses, intimidates and stalks Chinese dissidents – including US citizens of Chinese descent – and their families, both in-person and online, all within the United States’ borders. “We cannot stand idly by while our citizens and lawful residents are being targeted and harassed by foreign governments on our soil.” In 2014, Beijing launched Operation Fox Hunt, a programme to track, threaten and coerce overseas dissidents and repatriate alleged fugitives. Outposts used for ‘espionage and intimidation’ The global repression campaign then moved its focus towards Chinese overseas police stations, coordinated through the United Front Work Department. The outposts are mostly a mix of community centres and surveillance centres. Ms Gorokhovskaia said: “They accomplish the goals together. One part provides consular services, the other espionage and intimidation.” Beijing has long denied the presence of clandestine overseas outposts, dismissing reports as part of a Western smear campaign. According to court documents, Lu Jianwang, 64, a Chinese-American citizen, founded the police station in early 2022. In March, the outpost received instructions to start tracking Mr Xi, beginning a campaign of harassment. ‘I’ve been persecuted by the CCP for years’ He said: “I was not too scared, I have become used to it. I have been facing persecution from the Chinese Communist Party for so many years now.” Mr Xi, 60, who took part in the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, said he was continuously persecuted and detained until he fled China in 2013. After moving to the US in 2018, he said he was continuously targeted by intimidation and harassment, largely online, including death threats. After the outpost opened, he said it started getting much worse. He said: “This will not be the only Chinese outpost in the US, I’m sure there may be many more.” Three years on, The Telegraph visited the unassuming office in Chinatown. Inside were two rooms, both filled with older Chinese women playing mahjong. Tea and snacks were spread on a table, and red decorations were hung on the walls. By all accounts, it looked like the community centre it had always claimed to be. Only one door was shut. Its sign read: Law Office. The Telegraph was told no representatives would be available to speak now, or in the future. Along the bustling street of nearby businesses, a dozen or so people The Telegraph spoke to said they either didn’t know about the case or did not want to comment on it. Trial and conviction of Lu Jianwang The week-long trial in New York in May pitted fears about Beijing’s crackdown on dissidents against the defence’s argument that Lu was a well-meaning community leader being unduly targeted. John Carman, his lawyer, claimed in court he had only been helping members of the Chinese diaspora renew their driving licences. He pledge to appeal after arguing that prosecutors had dressed up a mundane case of misfiled paperwork into an international espionage thriller. After Lu’s 2022 arrest, the court heard he had admitted to FBI agents that he established the outpost and kept in touch with his handler using a messaging platform. He was convicted of being a foreign agent and of obstructing justice by deleting text messages that included orders from Beijing to intimidate dissidents.
He faces up to 30 years in prison. His legal team was approached for comment. His co-defendant Chen Jinping, who was also accused of founding the police station, pleaded guilty, too. Joseph Nocella Jr, the US attorney, said: “A police station operating in New York City at the direction of the Chinese government has been exposed, its sinister purpose disrupted, and its founder held accountable for blatantly disregarding the law and our country’s sovereignty.” In response, Beijing said it firmly opposed “the US’s slanders and smears”. Ms Harth, of Safeguard Defenders, said governments needed to wake up to this threat. She said: “We are not seeing concrete, decisive action. This is not just about transnational repression, but about global influence operations. And we need to take a very hard stance.” |
