More illegal Chinese police stations are being uncovered around the world
Some countries are investigating them
But others are...defending them?
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
Looking for love in the New Year?
Then I recommend you check out this very important video on our new channel Gamers Unbeaten,
How I Found, and Lost Love in Minecraft.
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We got to get around it somehow.
The Chinese Communist Party is being exposed for what it calls “Chinese overseas police
service stations.”
The CCP says that they’re for “persuading” Chinese citizens who’ve supposedly committed
crimes in China or abroad, such as scams and “environmental crimes,” to come back home.
You know.
Just some friendly neighborhood persuasion.
They also claim that overseas police help with things like renewing a Chinese driver’s
license and patrolling places with lots of Chinese tourists.
China isn’t the only country to ever do this.
After 9/11, the NYPD set up overseas bureaus to investigate terrorism.
But there’s a big difference: Many of these Chinese overseas police stations were established
without permission from the countries they’re in, and potentially in violation of international
law.
Their excuse?
Extradition rules are very cumbersome.
What’s wrong with simply *pressuring* criminals to return to China, and skipping all the red
tape?
I mean, I bet they didn’t make Spider-Man fill out a bunch of annoying paperwork when
he went to Europe.
And what’s wrong with enforcing justice?
If by justice, you mean allowing an authoritarian regime that targets political and religious
dissidents to pressure people to return to China.
What’s wrong with that?
I’ve covered in previous episodes how two Chinese counties—called Qingtian and Fuzhou—set
up local law enforcement branches abroad.
This was exposed by the human rights NGO Safeguard Defenders.
After their report, at least 13 countries started to investigate.
Some even ordered China to close the police stations down.
If you want to learn more about the findings and responses to Safeguard Defender’s initial
report, I’ll leave links in the description below.
Back when Safeguard Defenders first reported this issue in September, they counted 54 overseas
Chinese police stations across 5 continents.
But in their follow-up report “Patrol and Persuade,” they found almost double the
number of police stations.
“In addition to the previously revealed 54 stations…
[there are] at least 48 additional Chinese Overseas Police…
Stations, bringing the total to 102…[across] 53 countries.”
Something that came from China is now spreading uncontrollably?
Say what you want about the Chinese Communist Party, but at least they’re consistent.
Most of those newly discovered police stations came from two more counties in China, Nantong
and Wenzhou.
At least 29 countries were found to have police from Nantong,
and 9 countries were found to have police from Wenzhou.
These police stations are like high fructose corn syrup.
Once you learn about it and start paying attention, you realize it’s in *everything*.
Both of those two counties started setting up overseas police stations in 2016.
And it wasn’t really kept secret.
Chinese state-run media had openly reported about Nantong and Wenzhou’s overseas police
stations for years.
This directly refutes the Chinese Communist Party’s claims that the operations started
in response to Covid 19.
What’s scary is that we’re still just touching the tip of the iceberg.
I mean, this is only the third episode I’m doing about it.
Probably a lot more than just four Chinese counties have an overseas police presence.
We just don’t know about it yet.
But here’s the crazy part.
Despite all this being revealed over the last few months, some countries are still in complete
denial.
I’ll tell you more after the break.
Welcome back.
There are a lot more overseas Chinese police stations abroad than we knew about a few months
ago.
For the most part, they were set up secretly, without the host country actually...hosting
them.
But in some cases, the countries were like, “Yeah, come on in!”
For example, Italy.
It’s the host of the largest number of Chinese police stations found so far.
I don’t know if that means Italy loves authoritarian police, or authoritarian police love spaghetti.
When Shelley was in Italy in 2019 investigating Chinese sweatshops, in one city called Prato,
nearly everyone was from Wenzhou—one of the Chinese counties with overseas police
stations.
But those police clearly didn’t stop prostitution or gambling.
Italy had also set up joint police patrols with Chinese police in Rome, Milan, and yes,
Prato.
But after the latest negative publicity about overseas Chinese police stations, Italy’s
interior minister announced that they had stopped the joint police patrols with China.
Other countries, like Serbia and Croatia, have also signed police agreements with China.
Including joint police patrols.
It’s in the name of helping Chinese tourists and creating a “safer” environment.
“The Chinese and Serbian governments decided to form joint police patrols in order to improve
the safety of citizens of our two countries.”
“Eight Chinese police officers have started a joint patrol with their Croatian counterparts
in major tourist spots in Zagreb.
It is part of the Safe Tourist Destination’ project which started in 2006 and since then
it has seen many foreign police officers coming to Croatia every summer to deal with tourist-related
cases with their local colleagues.”
“The first day we came here, we met three Chinese tourists.
I feel we are very welcomed by them because they feel really safe when they saw Chinese
policemen in uniform.”
Ah, yes, I’m totally sure all those Chinese people who left China feel safe knowing that
Chinese police are still watching them.
In response to Safeguard Defender’s latest report, Serbia and Croatia denied that there
was any secret Chinese police presence—by saying, “It wasn’t a secret!”
According to Serbia’s Interior Ministry, Serbia’s memorandum with China dictates
that Chinese police officers help project public order and security.
But Chinese officers don’t have the right to use coercive force.
Oh, of course!
We should definitely trust an authoritarian regime like China to follow its own agreements.
They totally don’t do things behind other countries’ backs.
Serbia is in denial, saying “such statements and unfounded claims harm the relations between
the two countries of Serbia and China, as well as the cooperation that has always been
at a high level.”
What kind of a response is that?
That’d be like if you came home at 4 AM covered in perfume and glitter, your girlfriend
asked if you went to a strip club, and you said, “such statements and unfounded claims
harm our relations.”
Croatia is in denial, too.
According to Croatia’s Interior Ministry, there’s no data on the existence or operation
of *illegal* police stations in Croatia.
So don’t worry.
After all, Chinese police officers are only in Croatia to help facilitate communication
with Chinese tourists for one month each summer.
They totally wouldn’t do more than just that, right?
I mean,
when has China ever thought about settling somewhere they weren’t welcome?
It’s no surprise that Serbia and Croatia are trying to downplay the threat of Chinese
overseas police.
Both countries joined the 17+1 initiative to expand cooperation between Eastern European
countries and China
But as Safeguard Defenders notes, Chinese overseas police threaten other countries’
sovereignty and the safety of their own citizens.
“New information shows at least one illegal ‘persuasion to return’ operation run through
the Wenzhou station in Paris, France; and at least
80 cases where the Nantong overseas police system assisted in the capture and/or persuasion
to return operation.”
“This is in addition to already exposed operations in Spain and Serbia.”
And despite China’s long history of economic coercion and exploitation, Serbia and Croatia
want to deepen economic ties with China.
I guess Chinese money is made from rays of sunlight.
That’s the only way I can explain why everyone is constantly blinded by it.
And now, as a thank you to all my wonderful fans who support China Uncensored through
the crowdfunding website Patreon or the exclusive social media platform Locals, I’ll answer
one of your questions:
Today’s question comes from NickAllen1 on Locals.
“What do you guys think about live-streaming a Three Body Problem watch party on Rumble
and Locals when the series launches on Netflix?
Have any of you guys read the book?
Did you catch the logical mistake in the premise?
The book posits a dangerous universe where technologically advanced civilizations are
doomed to destroy each other due to resource scarcity.
But civilizations that advanced would easily overcome resource scarcity.
I haven't finished the series yet so maybe the author figures that out before Thanos
snaps his fingers and doubles the universe's resources.
Well, Nick Allen 1, I *have* read the Three Body Problem books.
And if you’re saying the first book makes a logical mistake...just wait till you finish
the third one.
But I won’t spoil it for people who haven’t read it yet.
For those of you who don’t know, the Three Body Problem is the first in a series of three
sci-fi books written by Chinese author Cixin Liu.
What I find interesting is that the books start with a Chinese scientist during the
Cultural Revolution.
She’s traumatized after her father gets beaten to death by his physics students for
talking about Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, which, you see, is a dangerous
Western reactionary theory that goes counter to China’s Marxist...whatever.
Anyway, the point is, her trauma from the Cultural Revolution leads her to set off a
chain of events that leads to, let’s just say, much, much bigger problems.
At least that’s pretty realistic.
I can’t wait to see how Netflix handles The Three Body Problem.
Maybe a watch party is a good idea.
You can sit with me for 12 hours as I binge watch Netflix.
Thanks for your question, and thank you to everyone else who supports China Uncensored
through Locals.
Join Locals as a paying member and you’ll get a lot of cool perks, including me answering
your questions on the show.
Check out chinauncensored.locals.com.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell, thanks for watching China Uncensored.