The FBI on Monday arrested two New York City residents for allegedly operating a secret, illegal police station for China's Ministry of Public Security in the city's Chinatown neighborhood.
The station, one of more than 100 China operates around the world ostensibly to help its citizens renew documents such as driver's licenses, allegedly had a more sinister purpose: to monitor and harass Chinese activists and dissidents in the United States as part of what U.S. prosecutors call China's "transnational repression" campaign.
Harry Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping, both U.S. citizens and leaders of a Chinatown non-profit, were arrested Monday morning on charges of conspiring to act as agents of the Chinese government, and obstruction of justice for destroying evidence of their communication with a Chinese security official.
The first charge carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, while the second charge calls for a maximum prison sentence of up to 20 years.
The men made their initial court appearances Monday afternoon.
In two other related schemes unveiled Monday, prosecutors charged a group of 34 officers of the Chinese ministry of public security with creating thousands of fake online personas to threaten and harass Chinese dissidents, and another group of six Chinese public security personnel with directing a China-based employee of video conference provider Zoom to remove Chinese dissidents from the company's platform. The tech executive, Julien Jin, was first charged in 2020.
The charges, announced by top law enforcement officials in New York, come amid growing tensions between China and the United States over a range of issues - from Beijing's claim over Taiwan to Chinese transnational repression activities.
Calling the Chinese police station's operation in New York a "flagrant violation of our nation's sovereignty," U.S. Attorney Breon Peace of the Eastern District of New York, said the three cases cast a spotlight on China's "transnational repression activities."
The cases "shed further light on the extent of the PRC government's efforts to project its authoritarian worldview on the residents of this city and this country," Peace said.
The embassy of China in Washington did not respond to a VOA request for comment. But China's foreign ministry in the past has described the stations as "service centers" catering to its citizens around the world.
The existence of the New York outpost came to light in September 2022 after a Spain-based human rights group, Safeguard Defenders, released an investigative report on a network of dozens of stations around the world, saying it was part of China's "growing transnational repression."
It is not clear when the FBI began looking into the New York station. But in November 2022, FBI Director Christopher Wray, appearing before a congressional panel, confirmed the bureau was investigating the operation, vowing to put a stop to China's illegal law enforcement activities in the United States.
According to prosecutors, the station operated between February and October 2022.
Acting at the direction of the Fuzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, a provincial arm of the Chinese ministry of public security, Lu and Chen set up the station in February but closed it in October after getting wind of the FBI probe.
Charging documents identified the two men as top leaders of a nonprofit organization in Lower Manhattan that describes its mission as a "social gathering place for Fujianese people," prosecutors said.
The New York Post last year identified the charity as America ChangLe Association NY Inc. and said it owned and operated the alleged police station above a noodle restaurant in Chinatown.
U.S. prosecutors allege that Lu, who maintains a home in China, has had "a long-standing relationship of trust" with the Chinese government.
In 2015 during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the United States, Lu allegedly took part in counterprotests against members of Falun Gong, a religious movement banned in China.
In 2018, he was enlisted by Chinese security officials to facilitate the return of a purported Chinese fugitive to China; in 2022, he was asked to locate a pro-democracy activist living in California.
FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Chinese police station in October, seizing Lu and Chen's cellphones, according to the charging document.
In interviews with the FBI, the two men admitted that they had deleted their communications with their primary ministry of public security liaison after learning about the federal investigation.
In addition to Lu and Chen, five other members of the Chinatown nonprofit supported the police station's operations, according to the criminal complaint.
None of them registered as agents of a foreign government with the Justice Department, which suggests that more arrests and charges related to the illegal operation of the police station case may be coming.
In a statement, Matt Olsen, assistant attorney general for national security, said China's efforts go far beyond the bounds of acceptable nation-state conduct.
"We will resolutely defend the freedoms of all those living in our country from the threat of authoritarian repression," he said.
In an updated report in December 2022, Safeguard Defenders said there were 102 Chinese overseas police service centers in 53 countries around the world.
Law enforcement authorities in 14 countries have launched investigations into the police stations, according to Safeguard Defenders.
U.S. law enforcement officials declined to comment on whether China is operating other stations in the United States.
But Safeguard Defenders says its research indicates the presence of a second Chinese police station based in Los Angeles.
