FBI arrests 2 for running covert Chinese police station in New York 

Two men were arrested on Monday for running a covert secret police station in New York City on behalf of the Chinese government, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced. 

According to the court documents, the police station on the edge of Chinatown in Lower Manhattan was overseen by the Fuzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, a branch of China’s Ministry of Public Security. 

The arrest of Lu Juanwang, 61—also known as Harry Lu—and Chen Jinping, stemmed from an investigation by the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office into the outpost. The men were charged with conspiring to act as agents of the Chinese government and obstructing justice. 

This is the first time that criminal charges have been brought in connection to a covert police station related to China, said the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn.  

“Today’s charges are a crystal clear response to the P.R.C. that we are onto you, we know what you’re doing and we will stop it from happening in the United States of America,” Breon S. Peace, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn said. “We don’t need or want a secret police station in our great city.”

The police outpost is one of the hundreds operating around the world that China uses to intimidate its citizens living abroad and get rid of any criticism towards the Chinese Communist Party. Countries such as Ireland, Canada, and the Netherlands have called on China to shut down outposts in their countries as well. 

Additionally, the DOJ announced charges against more than three dozen Chinese police officers belonging to Beijing’s Municipal Public Security Bureau, who were charged with using social media to harass dissidents living in the New York Area, as well as eight officials working to remove Chinese dissidents from Zoom.