Alleged site of China's police outpost in New York. AP.
U.S. federal agents arrested two American citizens for allegedly running a Chinese "secret police" station in New York City.
Beijing
has previously denied allegations that it runs operations targetting
Chinese dissidents abroad and refers to the institutions as "overseas Chinese service centers."
- Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, were arrested in their homes on Monday.
- They
ran a non-profit in Manhattan's Chinatown district that allegedly
conducted "sinister" activities in addition to helping Chinese citizens
with government services, like renewing driver's licenses.
- The
suspects face charges of obstruction of justice and conspiring to act as
agents for Beijing without informing U.S. authorities.
- Prosecutors also charged 34 Chinese officials on Monday with harassing dissidents on the internet and running a "troll farm."
- They
said that eight additional Chinese officials would be added as
defendants to a previous case involving a China-based Zoom Video
executive.
- The executive was charged in 2020 with disrupting meetings commemorating the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square.
- Beijing
established "service stations," abroad that worked with Chinese police
to pressure fugitives to return to the country, according to a 2022 investigation by advocacy group Safeguard Defenders.
- The U.S. Justice Department has ramped up its efforts in recent years to investigate cases of "transnational repression" in U.S. territory.
