On April 17, US prosecutors arrested two people in New York City on suspicion of operating a Chinese “secret police station” in the Chinatown area.
“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,” US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a statement.
Having gained full command over China’s central organs of power, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) controls the life, death and political freedoms of hundreds of millions of people. As a result, Chinese citizens are increasingly keen to live abroad. Statistics show that more than 4,000 people have emigrated from China in recent months. Many Chinese creators on TikTok or Douyin have settled abroad in search of economic opportunities and political freedom.
Concerned about citizens’ movements abroad, Chinese authorities have set up special departments to establish “police overseas service stations” in other countries. China pretends that these facilities are designed to help Chinese citizens in other countries handle procedures such as renewing their driver’s license, but behind the scenes these “secret police stations” are used to monitor Chinese citizens.
In some cases, the stations have used illegal means to pressure expatriates into returning to China and forcibly arrested so-called dissidents. These stations extend the long arm of China’s judiciary overseas to intimidate citizens who have fled from the Chinese Communist Party’s rule. Beijing has even used them to infiltrate other countries’ institutions and steal information for the Chinese government.
China’s human rights issues are no longer confined to its national borders and have become even more notorious when they reach overseas. A report published by the non-
governmental organization Safeguard Defenders said that China has set up at least 54 such police stations in about 30 countries under different names and in more or less concealed locations.
China’s establishment of “secret police stations” is an obvious abuse of loopholes in Interpol’s rules and operations to harass dissidents and other people who have fled from China. Governments around the world should pay close attention to this problem and conduct large-scale raids of such service stations. This would protect overseas Chinese citizens from being forced to go back to China and facing even harsher persecution. It would also safeguard those countries’ national security by preventing China from stealing their data.
Yi An is an assistant in Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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