China is setting up overseas police service centers
They’re supposedly to crack down on telecom fraud
But guess what?
They have an ulterior motive.
Welcome to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
Do you ever get those annoying and also faintly menacing Chinese robocalls?
My favorite is when they tell me there’s a package for me at the Chinese consulate.
Do they really think Amazon got my address that wrong?
I’m not falling for that scam!
I don’t need strange packages, since I can afford to buy whatever I want.
As soon as that Nigerian prince wires me the money he promised.
But there are people who have fallen for it.
“A 65-year-old Chinese woman complained to the NYPD that she had been scammed out
of $1.3 million.”
“Someone from the Chinese Consulate called [her] and said she needs to call the Beijing
Police Department because she’s being investigated for financial crimes over in China.”
Now you might think she’s just really gullible, but that could have actually been the Chinese
consulate calling her.
I’ll explain why in a bit.
These Chinese scammers likely operate outside the US.
You’d know if they were in the US if they said, “We have news about your car’s extended
warranty…
at the Chinese consulate.”
As annoying as these robocalls are, they may have finally met their match.
The biggest scammer of all is scamming them right back.
The Chinese Communist Party.
According to a report by the human rights NGO Safeguard Defenders, the Party is targeting
Chinese scammers living abroad.
But how they’re doing it is extremely questionable.
You see, Chinese authorities have been cracking down hard on scammers inside China.
So many have moved to other countries.
Instead of working with local law enforcement to catch these scammers, Chinese officials
are setting up their *own* law enforcement branches overseas.
Besides being shady, that’s also just rude.
That’d be like someone coming to eat at your restaurant, and they said, “We brought
our own chef.”
Not sure if I’d let them in the kitchen.
Of course, China isn’t calling them law enforcement branches.
They’re calling them “overseas police service stations.”
Because when you add “service” in there, it just sounds like friendly Chinese cops
there to help you renew your driver’s license.
What could be suspicious about that?
Well for one, these police stations are underground—and I’m not talking about the kind that are
in subway stations.
They’re underground because they’re likely breaking international law.As far as we know,
they’re operating without the blessing or knowledge of local governments.
When Safeguard Defenders tracked them down, they were all using addresses of completely
unrelated businesses.
“Among the addresses, one in Dublin belongs to a Chinese supermarket, while a Glasgow
address belongs to a Chinese restaurant.”
So they’re basically just co-opting any business that’s Chinese?
Well, at least I know it’s still safe to eat at
Panda Express.
That place is as authentically Chinese as I am authentically Martian.
The sketchiest addresses were for Chinese hometown associations.
These are community groups that cater to Chinese immigrants from a particular region of China.
“While often providing genuine services to the community, [overseas hometown associations]
have by now become overwhelmingly co-opted by the CCP’s United Front organizations,
which seek to increasingly control the Chinese diaspora.”
And by control the diaspora, I don’t mean little things, like what karaoke songs people
sing.
Unless of course those songs have lyrics that “harm national unity”.
Think of hometown associations as the eyes and ears of the Chinese Communist Party abroad.
That is, if eyes and ears could also make threats.
Much like these hometown associations, the overseas police service stations bill themselves
as offering services to Chinese overseas.
Hey, it’s in the name!
“The so-called stations appear to be local phone numbers that overseas Chinese people
can call to access services such as document renewal or to report cases such as fraud to
[police] officers in China.”
It’s all part of a program called 110 Overseas, which refers to the phone number you call
in China when there’s an emergency.
Like 9-1-1 when you’re in America.
0-0-0 when you’re in Australia.
Or 867-5309 when you’re in need of a good time.
The idea is that if you’re from China and you’re scammed by another Chinese person
abroad, you can report it to these Chinese authorities by calling their local number.
But since the Chinese Communist Party is doing this, it won’t surprise you to learn they
also have an ulterior motive.
I’ll explain, after the break.
Welcome back.
So China has set up a program called 110 Overseas, which on the surface is about helping Chinese
living abroad.
For example, if a Chinese person has been scammed, they can call their local 110 Overseas
office, and the Chinese police stationed there will just bring the scammer to justice.
Maybe.
At least it sounds like a pretty good mission.
But the NGO Safeguard Defenders found that the crackdown on scammers “is now itself
becoming an endemic problem”.
Which isn’t a surprise.
Calling the Communist Party to help when you’ve been scammed is like getting bitten by a piranha
and
calling a shark for help.
Last year, the Party made a push to persuade scammers to return to China by a certain date,
or else face punishment.
But instead of using evidence to charge and then convict them of a crime, they just targeted
every Chinese person living in certain countries.
China identified 9 countries as being hotspots for Chinese scammers.
And it made it illegal for Chinese to go there without a "’strict necessity’ or ‘emergency
reason’ to.
They also tried to “persuade” people living in those countries to return to China.Now
it could be true that there are a lot of Chinese scammers in these countries.
But that doesn’t mean ALL Chinese people in these countries are scammers.
A Hunan police official told a Chinese news site that “although not all (Chinese) citizens
staying in northern Myanmar were engaged in criminal activities, they would still be regarded
as targets for persuasion” to return to China.
He said some who were persuaded to return would only get fined for “smuggling” because
the police had no evidence that they had actually committed a crime.
So yeah, telecom fraud isn’t great, but getting shaken down by your own government
for crimes you didn’t commit is even worse.
This is like if you were out past your curfew watching a movie with your friends, and your
parents called and said, “If you come home now, we’ll only ground you for smoking crack.”
It doesn’t end there, though.
According to Safeguard Defenders, Chinese authorities also went after family members
of the alleged scammers.
One woman living in Cambodia—who wasn’t accused of any crime—was pressured by Chinese
authorities to return to China because Cambodia is one of the 9 countries with scammers.
When she refused, authorities threatened to cut off power and water to her elderly mother’s
home in China.
Later, her mother’s house was spray painted with the words "House of Telecom Fraud."
Spray painted?
The CCP is about as mature as a 13-year-old boy whose parents just got divorced and is
acting out and is failing all his classes and I’m totally not talking about myself
here.
I’m talking about Matt.
Anyway, here’s the craziest part.
In Laiyang city of Shandong Province, authorities threatened Chinese living in Northern Myanmar
to return, or else “the bank accounts of their immediate family members and friends
who engaged in financial transactions with the suspects would be controlled, restricted
or even cancelled.”
Freezing the bank accounts of *friends and families*?!
Justin Trudeau is like, “That’s too far even for me.”
There’s another, even sadder layer to all this.
Some scammers themselves have apparently been scammed into scamming.
I know, that sentence sounds like it was said by Xzbit.
But it’s actually talking about human trafficking.
“Stories of often young people being lured to other countries only to be held hostage
and forced to engage in online scams are not limited to Cambodia.
One report identifies Myanmar as another [hotspot] for such actions, where people are often promised
well paid positions to lure them.”
Yes, if it’s any comfort to those who have been scammed, it’s possible your scammer
was scammed even worse.
How’s that for karma?
Now state-run media has said China is trying to “rescue” these people, or to “persuade
them to return to China”.
They’re trying to rescue kidnapped people… by persuading them to come home?
Brilliant!
Hey,
Brittney Griner, have you ever thought about just leaving your Russian prison cell and
going back to America?
Now, rescuing and persuading are two really different things.
And I’m guessing Chinese authorities are doing more of the persuading and less of the
rescuing because, again, they haven’t shown they’re really interested in finding out
who’s actually guilty.
One of the success cases the government has been touting is a man who was supposedly tricked
into being part of an online gambling operation overseas.
He managed to escape his captors and called Chinese authorities to ask if he could come
back to China to surrender.
He did, and according to state media, “The public security organs are seriously dealing
with his criminal acts in accordance with the law.”
So, sorry you were held hostage and forced to break the law, enjoy your time in prison.
China says its campaign to contain telecom fraud has been a success.
Even though it looks like as much of a success as when I build IKEA furniture.
According to State media, in a little over a year, “230,000 people involved [in telecom
and online fraud] were re-educated or persuaded to return from overseas.”
Wow, does that mean I’m going to finally stop getting these Chinese robocalls?
Hello?
“Hello, this is a notice from Chinese T-Mobile voice department.
(Chinese follows)”
Guess not.
So what role do these overseas Chinese police service stations play?
I’ll tell you, right after the break.
Welcome back.
Unless YouTube demonetized us again, in which case, I hope you enjoyed the restful black
screen.
Thank you for supporting us on Patreon and Locals.
So cities and provinces all around China have been threatening overseas Chinese to return
to China or else.
And if they don’t, their family, friends and property could all be in the crosshairs.
And it’s not like these are convicted criminals.
They’re also scooping up innocent people, whose only crime seems to be living in a country
that China deems too “scammy”, while also being ethnically Chinese.
I know.
China persecuting people solely for their ethnicity?
Noooo way.
Until recently, the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to force citizens to go back to China
was limited.
They mostly did it via the phone or internet, and putting pressure on their families back
in China.
But thanks to the 110 Overseas program, it seems they now have boots on the ground.
If someone doesn’t return to China, they might just get an invite to have tea with
a local cop.
One Chinese business owner in Mozambique contacted one of these overseas police offices claiming
that an employee who had stolen money from him had returned to China.
The police arrested the man in China, and then tracked down an alleged accomplice still
in Mozambique.
They reportedly got the accomplice to go back to China as well.
This is just one example of how these overseas Chinese police stations are part of this extralegal
pressure campaign to bring people back to China.
And they’re expanding around the world fast.
Safeguard Defenders counted 54 overseas Chinese police stations on 5 continents.
Most of them are actually in Europe for some reason.
And that’s just the ones they know about.
Those 54 all came from a pilot program run by *two counties.*
Just imagine if there were even more counties involved.
Oh what’s that Shelley?
There are more?
A government announcement … said the pilot program has now spread to ten provinces.
So 54 overseas police stations is probably lowballing it….by a lot.
Now you may have heard of China’s Operation Fox Hunt.
And maybe you’re wondering how this is any different.
Well, in short, Fox Hunt goes after higher-profile targets.
“Now, China describes Fox Hunt as some kind of international anti-corruption campaign—it
is not.
Instead, Fox Hunt is a sweeping bid by General Secretary Xi to target Chinese nationals whom
he sees as threats and who live outside China, across the world.
We’re talking about political rivals, dissidents, and critics seeking to expose China’s extensive
human rights violations.”
Will the 110 Overseas and Fox Hunt programs work in tandem?
Probably.
Both target Chinese people living abroad.
And they are both shady organizations that operate below the radar and above the law.
But their targets are different.
Speaking of being above the law, there’s a reason the Chinese regime doesn’t use
legal channels to track down targets.
They don’t want the scrutiny that going through legal channels would bring.
Also, by this point, I’m not even sure the CCP even knows *how* to do things the right
way.
They’re so corrupt they probably found a way to jaywalk indoors.
Even in countries China has extradition treaties with, “These [extradition treaties] are
rarely—or in some cases, never—used as authorities instead rely on the faster, smoother
and easier method of having people deported—thus depriving them of any chance of due process
to fight accusations of criminal behavior.”
Now it’s not like Chinese police haven’t been *legally* allowed to operate in foreign
countries.
In fact, quite a few countries have welcomed Chinese police officers.
Back in 2014, France signed an agreement to have Chinese police patrol tourist areas.
Italy did the same thing a year later.
Zambia signed an agreement in 2017, but it got quashed before it started because of public
outcry.
Yes, the Zambians protested, while the French just...surrendered.
Hm.
So did Cambodia, which has worked with Chinese police since 2018.
And Serbia signed a policing agreement with China in 2019.
And the leader of the Solomon Islands who signed a security deal with China earlier
this year, hasn’t ruled out using Chinese police.
China is also a member of Interpol, the international law enforcement network that targets criminals
who cross borders.
But again, the reason China doesn’t want to go through the legal system is that it’s
not really interested in justice.
It’s interested in making Chinese people think that, no matter where they run, the
Communist Party will hunt them down.
And if Chinese people believe that, you can bet they’re going to think real hard before
challenging the Party, even overseas.
Suddenly, robocalls don’t look so bad.
Compared to the CCP’s scam, I’d much prefer to talk about my car’s extended warranty.
And finally, this show would not be possible without support from viewers.
Join my exclusive 50-Cent Army by contributing directly to the show on Patreon or Locals.
And as a perk, I answer my supporters’ questions at the end of some episodes.
Today’s question comes from...
Ian Pendleton on Patreon: “Do you think there will ever be a point where the U.S.
will drop out of the UN because of how much influence the CCP has amassed over the past
few decades?
Or would that somehow only feed into China's narrative about America being a "disruptive
influence" and enable the CCP to amass even more power and influence in global affairs?”
https://www.patreon.com/posts/un-caves-to-for-71670624
Good question, Ian.
Both the US and China are among the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
And while the US is the largest funder of the UN, China is the second largest.
So the US and China are essentially the two dominant countries.
A sort of good-cop, bad-cop buddy comedy where the future of the entire world hangs in the
balance.
If the US drops out of the UN, the People’s Republic of China would certainly have a lot
more influence there.
At least at first.
But it could also shift the balance of power so much that it might affect other countries.
With China in the lead, some US allies might see the entire UN as a joke.
And they, too, might leave.
And then the UN would just become another one of those weak international organizations
that everyone’s vaguely heard about, but no one is quite sure what they actually accomplish.
So I don’t think the US will drop out of the UN entirely.
If they did, the UN would probably fall apart.
And historically, that’s not supposed to happen until World War III.
Thanks for your question, Ian.
And thank you to everyone else as well who supports us directly through Patreon or Locals.
Patreon is a way for you to contribute a dollar or more per episode, and interact with us.
Locals is a social media platform that has monthly subscriptions that also allow viewers
to support us directly.
The links are below.
We really do rely mainly on viewer support for this show.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
Thanks for watching China Uncensored.