US arrests two for setting up Chinese 'secret police station' in New
York
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[April 18, 2023]
By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. federal agents arrested two New York residents
for allegedly operating a Chinese "secret police station" in the
Chinatown district of Manhattan on Monday in what prosecutors said was
part of a crackdown on Beijing's alleged targeting of dissidents.
Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, face charges of conspiring to act
as agents of China's government without informing U.S. authorities and
obstruction of justice. They were released on bond following an initial
appearance in Brooklyn federal court.
A 2022 investigation published by Spain-based advocacy group Safeguard
Defenders reported that China had set up overseas "service stations,"
including in New York, that illegally worked with Chinese police to
pressure fugitives to return to China.
The Chinese government has said there are centers outside China run by
local volunteers, not Chinese police officers, that aim to help Chinese
citizens renew documents and offer other services.
The Department of Justice has been ramping up 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.
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"We cannot and will not tolerate the Chinese government's persecution of
pro-democracy activists who have sought refuge in this country," Breon
Peace, the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, told reporters.
Prosecutors on Monday unveiled charges against 34 Chinese officials for
allegedly operating a "troll farm" and harassing dissidents online,
including by 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.
The officials charged are all at large.
"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," said Liu
Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the U.S.
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![](../images/041823PIX/news_n91.jpg)
Lu Jianwang, 61, a U.S. citizen charged
with conspiring to act as an agent of the Chinese government by
helping set up a Chinese ‘secret police station’ in New York, exits
Brooklyn federal court after posting bond in New York City, U.S.,
April 17, 2023. REUTERS/Bing Guan
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Apr/18/images/ads/current/graue_lda_SFARM_2023.png)
HELPING LOCATE 'FUGITIVES'
Lu and Chen are both U.S. citizens who lead a nonprofit organization
that lists its mission as providing a social gathering place for
people from China's Fujian province, prosecutors said.
Before it closed in the fall of 2022, the men's New York operation
occupied a full floor in a nondescript building in Chinatown near
the Manhattan Bridge.
Peace said the site was being used "at the very least" for
government services like helping some Chinese citizens renew their
drivers licenses' - activity that should have been disclosed to U.S.
authorities. But he said it was also used for more "sinister"
activities.
In 2022, Lu helped open the so-called police station and was asked
by China's government to locate an individual living in California
who was considered a pro-democracy activist, they added. In 2018, Lu
had sought to persuade an individual considered a fugitive by China
to return home, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Lu and Chen admitted to the FBI that they deleted
their communications with a Chinese government official.
FBI Director Christopher Wray told a U.S. Senate committee in
November that he was "very concerned" about the presence of such
stations in U.S. cities.
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Prosecutors previously charged more than a dozen Chinese nationals
and others with waging surveillance and harassment campaigns against
dissidents living in the United States, including by trying to
forcibly repatriate people whom China considered fugitives.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York and Susan Heavey in Washington;
Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Washington and Dan
Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Rosalba O'Brien,
Don Durfee and Lincoln Feast.)
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