A secret Chinese police station in Manhattan
Has been exposed,
And arrests have been made.
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
Major news.
For months we’ve been covering shocking revelations that the Chinese Communist
Party has established secret Chinese police stations in countries around the world.
The human rights group Safeguard Defenders discovered 102 of these
secret Chinese police stations in 53 countries.
Nobody likes surprise police.
Well, except bachelorette parties. But that’s a whole different type of officer.
And it turns out, Manhattan’s very own Chinatown had one as well.
Now, Beijing has denied everything and said the Manhattan police station “and similar offices
around the world are run by volunteers and are not connected with the police.”
This would be like The Riddler saying, “Those henchmen covered
in question marks you caught don’t work for me. They’re just big fans of mine.”
But this week, Brooklyn federal prosecutors
arrested and charged two men for their role in the Manhattan police station.
Their names are Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping And according to prosecutors, there is now
evidence of direct ties to the Chinese state.
Prosecutors say the police station was “operated by Beijing’s ministry of public security.”
That’s about as high up in the Chinese
government as you can get. Figuratively. Literally, as high up as you can get is
Spy balloon technician. But the Chinese government *definitely*
didn’t have anything to do with that, either.
One of the New York attorneys involved said the case “reveals the Chinese
government’s flagrant violation of our nation’s sovereignty.”
The alleged police station was raided in October,
but this is the first time anyone has been officially charged.
Here’s the public statement.
The defendants worked together to establish an overseas police station in Manhattan's
Chinatown on behalf of the Fuzhou branch of the Chinese government's national police force,
the NPS. These defendents did China's bidding in secret.
And what was that bidding?
“Transnational repression schemes targeting U.S. residents whose
political views and actions are disfavored by the PRC government.”
In other words, the Chinese Communist Party was actively targeting people
in America who they perceived as a threat.
Wait… they came to New York — where I live — to target people the CCP don’t like — and
didn’t even try to intimidate me? What am I, chopped liver?
The police station used work like helping people renew Chinese driver’s licenses as
a cover. But it failed to register with the Justice Department as agents of a
foreign government. And, meanwhile, it was busy going after people in America.
But it gets so much worse than that. The
secret police station got up to some much more sinister things.
Which is saying something, because there isn’t anything much more
sinister than doing the same job as the DMV. How much worse can it get?
According to Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace, a lot worse.
“On at least one occasion, an official with the Chinese national police directed one of the
defendants, a US citizen who worked at the secret police station, to help locate a
pro-democracy activist of Chinese descent living in California.”
Wait…they did what now? “In other words, the Chinese national police
appear to be using the station to track a US resident on US soil.”
Between this, TikTok, and all their hacking, is there anything in the US that *doesn’t* track
US residents for China. Wait, who put this pen here? Nice try, Xi! I’m on to ya! (hurl pen away)
There’s more.
Court documents show that one of the men charged, Lu Jianwang,
has been working for the Chinese Communist Party in the United States since at least 2015.
For example, he was asked to “organize counter protests to
the demonstrations from the spiritual group Falun Gong.”
On top of that, “The Chinese consulate in New York
directed Lu to publish materials in newspapers targeting Falun Gong.”
Lu denies he did that. Because he wouldn’t be much of a spy if he immediately went,
“Yup! You caught me! Here’s how I helped lead counter protests against the Falun gong.”
But he did tell investigators that he helped bring members from his
association on buses to Washington for the anti-Falun gong counter protests.
He said, “Each association member would receive $60 from the consulate. Each
bus would have a point of contact that would pay in cash from the Consulate,”
“People would not just travel from New York but also from Philadelphia.
Several hundred people would go every time.”
Ooo…kaaaaay. So maybe he isn’t much of a spy. He basically laid out how he led the
anti-Falun gong protests, but said, “But I wasn’t directed to publish anything in newspapers!”
The Chinese government apparently gave him a plaque for his efforts,
according to court filings.
“Later, Lu helped to coordinate threats of violence against a
Chinese dissident and the dissident’s family,
in an attempt to force the person to return to China to be arrested by CCP authorities.”
And that brings us to the part where, according to Peace, Lu also hired an
agent through the secret police station to “‘track a U.S. resident on U.S. soil’ and
silence them on behalf of the regime in order to ‘protect its authoritarian worldview.’”
I honestly don’t know how the Chinese Communist Party thought it could get away with this.
They must have such little respect for the United States.
Which, to be fair… I get. But they didn’t have to shove it in their faces, ya know?
Seth Moulton, a member of the new House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party,
said, “This is absolutely absurd that the Chinese Communist Party thinks
that they can set up their own police station in a place like New York City.”
Kurt Ronnow, the acting assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, said,
“It is simply outrageous that China’s ministry of public security thinks it
can get away with establishing a secret, illegal police station
on US soil to aid its efforts to export repression and subvert our rule of law.”
But the arrest of these two men was just the tip of the iceberg.
A massive iceberg, which is surprising since
you’d think all of China’s greenhouse gas emissions would melt it at least a little.
So much more was uncovered this week. I’ll tell you more after the commercial break.
Welcome back.
The arrest of 2 men working for a secret Chinese police station in Manhattan is just the beginning.
40 others were charged for targeting dissidents in America.
There were more people making a living targeting dissidents in
America than there are people making a living off NFTs in America. Oh,
they’ll be worth something someday? Sure. Keep telling yourself that.
They were also working on behalf of China’s Ministry of Public Security and the Cyberspace
Administration of China, so, again, this is coming from the top of the Chinese government.
“The defendants allegedly threatened, harassed,
and intimidated dissidents by leveraging fake social media accounts and ties to a
U.S. telecommunications company to attack and deplatform political opponents.”
Specifically, they allegedly “created a ‘troll farm’ consisting of thousands
of fake online personas on social media sites, including Twitter,
to target Chinese nationals living in the U.S” who were critical of the Chinese regime.
I feel like I got to see many of those fake accounts
first hand across all the China Uncensored social media accounts.
By the way, please follow China Uncensored on Twitter and Instagram
and TikTok. Haha, no. They wish.
The FBI also accused a group of Chinese officers of “flooding an online video conference,
screaming at and threatening Chinese dissidents in the US who were discussing democracy.”
This is their grand plan? Zoom bombing and trolling people on Twitter? Who’s running this
operation? 11 year-olds? What next, are they gonna yell slurs at people playing Fortnite?
Some of these officers are believed to still be in China. So it's very unlikely
any arrests will be made. They’re thought to be members of a Ministry of Public Security unit
called “the ‘912 special project working group,’ dedicated to the pursuit of dissidents abroad.”
Also, do you know how comedically insecure you have to be to chase down your critics
across the globe? That was basically the plot to Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
Representative Moulton made a good point about the secret Chinese police station. He said,
“The story out there that the Americans and Chinese are ratcheting up tensions is
really not accurate. This is China ratcheting up tensions. This is
the Chinese Communist Party trying to exact their repressive regime all over the globe.”
That’s a very important point. I talked about that in this episode , America’s China Policy
is Collapsing—And That’s a Good Thing. All of the CCP’s aggressive actions are leading to the
death of what’s known as the engagement school. That was the idea that if we work with China,
kind of ignore the whole fact that they use rape as a form of torture, and do lots of big
business with them, China will transform into a democracy. I think everyone hears that now and
realizes how stupid it sounds, but the engagement school dominated US China policy for decades.
And you still see people, including a lot in the media, sticking to it.
Because sometimes you just need to give brutal authoritarians a 422nd try to become a democracy.
For example, this CNN article about the secret Chinese police station.
It starts out by basically saying “THE US DOES IT TOO!!!”
“This is not unsurprising activity by a foreign intelligence agency on foreign soil;
Washington’s penchant for engaging democracy activists in totalitarian countries has,
for instance, long been seen as meddling by
repressive governments. And the FBI has outposts in many foreign embassies.”
Wow, okay. So, if the FBI has outposts in foreign embassies, that suggests those
countries…know about it. Did China let the US know about these secret police stations? Also,
an embassy is, by definition, a small patch of one nation within another nation. If the FBI has
an outpost in an embassy in a foreign country, the outpost is still technically in the United States.
Also also, you’re comparing supporting democracy activists in authoritarian
regimes with an authoritarian regime harassing democracy activists in America. Bad take.
Although having bad takes is kind of CNN’s brand.
But the CNN article warns this could have a “dangerous diplomatic fallout.”
That is “likely to increase uncertainty — some might say paranoia — about the
level of clandestine activity China might be conducting on US soil.”
Paranoia? Who’s saying that?!
Oh yeah, my favorite Chinese state-run media, the Global Times.
Also, if finding a secret Chinese police station being used to harass
dissidents on your soil doesn’t make you paranoid, then you’re just idiotic.
The CNN article goes on to say that “the level of antipathy towards China is so
strong on Capitol Hill that it makes it hard for President Joe Biden…not to toughen his stance.”
Yeah, that would be terrible. Because I’m sure the
CCP would give democracy a chance after this 423rd try!
“This in turn causes diplomatic and political after shocks in Beijing,
whipping up more anti-US rhetoric and behavior.”
I see, it's America’s fault that Beijing is sending secret spy balloons and building
secret Chinese police stations. Wow, America really is the worst.
And in the end, this all “narrows the room for sober, strategic reasoning.”
In other words, the whole engagement school idea that we can rationally hash out our
differences with an authoritarian regime that wants to destroy us.
Not a great plan.
Maybe America shouldn’t be so complacent as China actively disrespects its sovereignty
and tries tracking dissidents - even U.S. residents - in its borders.
So what do you think of China targeting dissidents in America
with secret police stations? Leave your comments below.
And as always, this show would not exist without
support from viewers like you on the crowdfunding website Patreon.
They’re what I call the China Uncensored 50 Cent Army. And as a thank you to them,
I answer their questions at the end of each episode.
Today’s question comes from Maldoone7: Chris, one of my friends is getting married in China
in a few months. How concerned should I be with visiting China for a short trip (less than a
week) to attend the wedding? Do I incur more risk as a veteran? (We are both U.S citizens)
That’s an excellent question. First off, congratulations to your friend.
As for traveling to China, currently the US State
Department has a Level 3 travel advisory: reconsider travel.
That includes Hong Kong and Macau.
The reason given is “arbitrary enforcement of local laws.”
So I think you should probably be fine,
but there are risks. Make sure you have a point of contact outside of China that
will know to start asking questions if you suddenly aren’t responding after a week.
But hopefully your main concern will be nothing more than eating too much
good food. And not throwing up on someone’s aunt if it’s an open bar.
Thanks for your question and your support.
And thank you for watching.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. See you next time on China Uncensored.