In 2023, the United States became the first country to lay charges against individuals accused of running extraterritorial Chinese police stations. Now, they appear to be getting their first conviction.
Chen Jinping, a 60-year-old American citizen, admitted this week to maintaining a covert Chinese “police station” in Manhattan’s Chinatown on behalf of Beijing’s Ministry of Public Security. According to the US Department of Justice, the station covered an entire floor of a building above a ramen shop. It reportedly provided legitimate services like driver’s license renewals but also spied on dissidents and pressured individuals to return to China.
How many more stations are out there? China has been accused of running 100 similar stations in 53 countries, including in the EU and Canada. In New York, officials were able to prosecute due to the existence of the US Foreign Agents Registry, a tool also in force in Australia and which was legislated this year in Canada. Similar legislation was introduced in the UK but has been delayed, a move opposition MPs blame on the new Labour government’s “softening” attitude toward China.
Jinping faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, while his co-defendant, Lu Jianwang, awaits trial after pleading not guilty. Beijing denies the charges and qualifies them as a smear campaign by Washington.
