Global investigations have been launched into the Chinese government’s overseas police stations following reports that Beijing is operating these centers illegally around the world to assist with its transnational repression efforts.
The crackdown by countries in Europe and elsewhere was spurred by Safeguard Defenders (a nonprofit organization) releasing a September report on “Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild,” with the Spain-based human rights advocacy group saying 54 overseas Chinese police service stations operating in 30 countries across five continents had been uncovered by the group so far.
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“These operations eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate the international rule of law, and may violate the territorial integrity of third countries involved in setting up a parallel policing mechanism using illegal methods,” Safeguard Defenders concluded, arguing these efforts were often connected to China’s malign foreign influence operations.
U.S. ALLIES MUST SHUT DOWN CHINESE POLICE STATIONS
Nearly two dozen House Republicans sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Attorney General Merrick Garland arguing that “there should be no room for the Chinese government to exercise extraterritorial law enforcement unilaterally on U.S. soil” and asking what the Biden administration was doing about reports that one of the Chinese police stations was operating in New York City.
The New York Post reported the Chinese police station operates in Lower Manhattan and is run by the America ChangLe Association NY Inc., which had its tax-exempt status pulled by the IRS in May after it failed to submit its taxes for three years in a row. The outlet said documents show the nonprofit group was founded in 2013 and “paid $1.3 million three years later for the suite of offices that houses the Fuzhou Police Overseas Chinese Affairs bureau.”
Reps. Greg Murphy (R-NC), Mike Waltz (R-FL), Jim Banks (R-IN), and Mike Gallagher (R-WI) sent a follow-up letter to Blinken, Garland, and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig last week, asking whether the State Department or the Justice Department has launched any investigation against the Chinese police station in New York, whether the station’s presence violates U.S. law, and what actions the IRS is taking.
The Irish Times reported last week that “the Irish government said it told China to close a Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station operating in Dublin.” An Irish Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said, “Actions of all foreign states on Irish territory must be in compliance with international law and domestic law requirements,” and so Ireland told China to close the station and cease its operations.
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced an investigation into “these so-called police centers” last week, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wopke Hoekstra tweeted Tuesday that China had never asked for permission to operate the police stations there, so the Netherlands had told China the stations needed to close immediately.
The Dutch outlet RTL Nieuws and the investigative group Follow the Money had conducted their own investigation into the Chinese police stations, concluding that “the police stations are also seeking contact with refugee Chinese critics in order to silence them in the Netherlands.”
The United Kingdom’s Minister of State for Security Tom Tugendhat said Tuesday that “reports of undeclared police stations in the United Kingdom are of course extremely concerning and will be taken very seriously.”
“Any foreign country operating in United Kingdom soil must abide by U.K. law,” Tugendhat said. “Any attempts to illegally repatriate any individual will not be tolerated.”
It comes after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said last week that it is “investigating reports of criminal activity in relation to the so-called ‘police’ stations” and that it “takes threats to the security of individuals living in Canada very seriously and is aware that foreign states may seek to harm or intimidate communities or individuals within Canada.”
Portugal’s Central Department of Criminal Investigation and Prosecution is investigating the Chinese police stations too, with the Portuguese attorney general’s office confirming the existence of the inquiry.
The Associated Press reported that Hungarian lawmaker Marton Tompos “discovered two sites in Budapest where Chinese overseas police stations operated without the knowledge of the country’s Interior Ministry,” and Daily News Hungary reported that one of the locations in the Hungarian capital had a sign that read, “Chinese police.”
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The German interior ministry “said police and internal security services were checking” the Safeguard Defenders report, according to Reuters, but a German government spokesman said last week that “they so far had no indications such facilities existed in Frankfurt.”
Anitta Hipper, the European Union spokeswoman on home affairs, said Thursday that the European Commission was aware of the reports of Chinese police stations operating in Europe but that “as this is also a matter of national sovereignty, it’s for the member states to investigate these allegations.”
