The FBI arrested two New York residents Monday on charges of acting as agents of the People’s Republic of China by operating a clandestine police station in Manhattan and using it to monitor and intimidate Chinese dissidents.
It is the first time criminal charges have been brought in connection with Beijing’s overseas police station, said Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for Brooklyn. The case is one of three filed Monday by federal prosecutors that accuse China of brazen espionage activity within the U.S.
Matthew G. Olsen, who heads the Justice Department’s national security division, said the People’s Republic of China’s actions “go far beyond the bounds of acceptable nation-state conduct.”
Prosecutors say Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, assisted the Chinese government by operating the outpost — a nondescript office without an explicit “cover” — on behalf of the Fuzhou municipal bureau, a branch of Beijing’s Ministry of Public Security.
Members of the Chinese Consulate paid a visit to the police station when it opened in 2022, said Michael Driscoll, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office.
Chinese intelligence officials used the secret police station to track down a U.S. citizen who was a pro-democracy activist of Chinese descent living in California, according to the Justice Department.
“Two miles from our office just across the Brooklyn Bridge, this nondescript office building in the heart of bustling Chinatown in lower Manhattan has a dark secret. Until several months ago, an entire floor of this building hosted an undeclared police station of the Chinese National Police,” Mr. Peace said. “Now, just imagine the NYPD opening an undeclared secret police station in Beijing. It would be unthinkable.”
Mr. Lu had a “longstanding relationship of trust” with Chinese security officials, prosecutors said.
In 2018, he was recruited in an effort to return a fugitive to China after months of being “repeatedly harassed,” Mr. Peace said.
Mr. Lu and Mr. Chen are charged with conspiring to act as agents of the Chinese government. They are also charged with obstruction of justice for, according to authorities, deleting their communications with a Ministry of Public Service official after they became aware of the FBI’s investigation.
The two defendants appeared in a federal courtroom in Brooklyn on Monday afternoon but did not enter pleas. Mr. Lu was released on a $250,000 bond and Mr. Chen was released on a $400,000 bond, according to a spokesperson for Mr. Peace’s office.
If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on the conspiracy charge and a 20-year sentence on the obstruction of justice charge.
In a separate complaint unsealed Monday, federal prosecutors say nearly three dozen Ministry of Public Service officers were using fake social media accounts to intimidate Chinese dissidents in the U.S. and disseminate “government propaganda” to counter their pro-democracy efforts.
The 34 defendants, all believed to be in China, worked as part of an elite task force to locate and harass Chinese dissidents around the globe to silence their criticism of Beijing.
They are also accused of disrupting online meetings where topics critical of the Chinese government were discussed, according to the Justice Department.
The organization, known as the “912 Special Project Working Group,” operated a troll farm consisting of thousands of fake social media profiles to disseminate Chinese government propaganda and recruit others to do the same, the Justice Department said.
In one example, the group allegedly interrupted a virtual anti-communism conference initiated by a Chinese dissident with loud music, threats and foul language, according to court documents.
Mr. Peace said the defendants operated as a “troll farm that attacks persons in our country for exercising free speech in a manner the PRC finds disagreeable.”
Another case filed Monday charges 10 Chinese officials, along with an employee of an unidentified telecommunications company, with conspiracy.
Prosecutors say they spied on virtual meetings and harassed participants identified by Chinese intelligence as targets.
Last year, the human rights organization Safeguard Defenders exposed more than 100 unauthorized CCP “police stations” in cities around the globe used to harass and surveil dissidents living in exile.
Safeguard said China was operating a secret police station in New York and three in Toronto.
The group claimed that China used undercover agents posted in overseas “police stations” to coerce dissidents into returning home.
Beijing has denied that it operates “police stations” outside China.
In October, the Justice Department arrested 13 people, including Chinese security and intelligence agents, on counts of coercing U.S. residents to return to the People’s Republic of China as part of an international repatriation effort known as Operation Fox Hunt.
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray told a Senate panel last year that the Chinese police stations presented a grave concern to U.S. intelligence officials.
“But to me, it is outrageous to think that the Chinese police would attempt to set up shop, you know, in New York, let’s say, without proper coordination. It violates sovereignty and circumvents standard judicial and law enforcement cooperation processes,” he said.
• Joseph Clark contributed to this report.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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