There are secret Chinese police stations operating in the US

Question

Rep. Mike Gallagher announces hearing to discuss ongoing Chinese Communist Party threat to U.S. citizens and Chinese dissidents -

He says there are many secret Chinese police stations operating around the world, and two on US soil.

Answer 1

Usually, I don't believe Fox News because they are very biased. However, as I was researching on this many articles from other news sources talked about this topic. According to an article from the National Review news site, sitings have been reported since September 2022. They are reported to have 102 stations across 53 countries with 4 in the U.S. They State that the reason, Chinese officials placed them there was to protect their citizens overseas however, that is in breach of the territory. 

The FBI is also aware of the stations and during a recent meeting with the Senate, an FBI officer states how concerned he is with the station. 

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/12/chinese-police-stations-identified-in-u-s/

Other news sites like BBC, The Guardian, The New York Times, CNN, The New York Post, and US News has been discussing this same topic very similarly. So this leads me to believe that this claim is true based on how many news sources are talking about it.

Comments

Great factcheck. I liked how you included the topic's popularity across multiple news sources as well, instead of only mentioning one source to factcheck it.

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I believe that before we are able to determine whether this is true, we have to wait for the outcome of the current legal proceedings and let due process tell us what the final determination is based on the evidence presented.

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Thank you for including so many sources. It does seem like this claim is true from the information given in your factcheck. I think a key source is also the senate hearing which makes this factcheck even more credible.

Answer 2

Based on accounts of residents in New York, there has been insight into China's surveillance practices. In New York City's Chinatown, a small non-profit "service station" has been reported to conduct surveillance on Chinese nationals living in the US. As a result of the recent Chinese-origin spying balloons, 60 protestors gathered in front of ChangLe Inc., which is assumed to serve as the station for surveillance. Rather than targeting US citizens, the labeled stations target dissidents of the CCP, and attempt to return them to the mainland by any means.

https://nypost.com/2023/02/25/dozens-of-demonstrators-protest-nyc-chinese-police-station/

Comments

Good job explaining your stance and evidence to support your fact-check. Going forward, try to dig deeper and find more legitimate news sources as the New York Post has a history of sensationalizing news or misinforming with little evidence.

Answer 3

Recently two New York City residents were arrested for operating illegal overseas police stations for the Chinese government. Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx, and Chen Jinping, 59 of Manhattan, were arrested and "charged with conspiring to act as agents of the PRC government as well as obstructing justice by destroying evidence of their communications with an MPS official."

" 'This prosecution reveals the Chinese government's flagrant violation of our nation's sovereignty by establishing a secret police station in the middle of New York City,' said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York."

Towards the middle of the article, there are bullet points addressing some of the actions these illegal police stations carried out.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-arrested-operating-illegal-overseas-police-station-chinese-government

Answer 4

Evidence points to the information being true. I found in this article more information about the FBI shutting down one of the police stations mentioned after arresting two alleged operatives. The article reports that several have been discovered around the country, with ones being found in San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, and Houston, with 100 more being reported to exist around the world. 

“On Monday, federal agents arrested “Harry” Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx, and Chen Jinping, 59, of Manhattan for allegedly establishing the East Broadway station, known as the Fuzhou branch of the Ministry of Public Security in China.”

https://nypost.com/2023/04/18/chinese-police-stations-allegedly-spying-on-nyc-la-more/

Answer 5

Simply put, we cannot say for certain if there are secret Chinese police stations operating in the U.S. The charges against Lu and Chen are the first public accusation by the U.S., regarding such a police station. However, there have been other cases of Chinese government agents operating in the U.S., without revealing their affiliation. For example, in 2015, the FBI arrested Chinese a spy who was gathering information on Chinese dissidents from an apartment in New York City. While it is a possibility that there are more secret Chinese police stations, we need more evidence to confirm. The charges against Lu and Chen are significant, and if they are found guilty, it would be a major setback fo the Chinese government's covert operations in the U.S. Therefore, while we await the outcome of the legal proceedings, it is essential to let due process play out and allow the court to make a final determination based on the evidence presented.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-arrested-operating-illegal-overseas-police-station-chinese-government

Comments

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