Two New Yorkers Jailed Over Clandestine Chinese Police Station

The FBI announced on Monday its arrest of two New York City residents for allegedly operating a Chinese government-sponsored police station in Manhattan’s Chinatown.

Authorities said the station posed a significant national security threat.

Fox News reported that Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping were taken into custody. The pair face charges levied by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York for conspiring to act as agents working for Beijing.

Lu is also suspected of attempting to cause a fugitive to return to China in 2018. The victim reported threats of violence against his family in the U.S. as well as China, along with constant harassment.

U.S. Attorney Breon Peace leveled serious allegations at the pair, charging they worked for the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS). Peace asserted the operation “repeatedly and flagrantly violated our nation’s sovereignty” by opening in the middle of the country’s largest city.

In a statement, the U.S. attorney described the “nondescript office building in the heart of bustling Chinatown” as harboring a “dark secret.” Up until several months ago, the location reportedly hosted an unofficial police station manned by agents of the Chinese National Police.

Peace speculated on Beijing’s reaction if the NYPD opened a secret precinct in the Chinese capital.

It is alleged that the two suspects destroyed evidence of interactions with Chinese national police when they discovered the FBI probe into the station.

The unofficial police station is believed to have provided some legitimate services, such as helping Chinese citizens renew their driver’s licenses. However, there are far more dangerous activities suspected.

For example, authorities believe the operation was directed by an official with the Chinese National Police to track a pro-democracy activist of Chinese descent residing in California. Thus, a U.S. resident was being surveilled by Chinese police on U.S. soil.

Peace credited his office along with New York’s FBI field office for being the first two law enforcement agencies to make an arrest in the unfolding scandal. The presence of unofficial Chinese Communist Party-affiliated police stations is suspected in several major cities on multiple continents.

The FBI’s Michael Driscoll confirmed that diplomatic personnel of the Chinese consulate in New York visited the branch of China’s police after the facility opened.