By: Alexa Schwerha, Daily Caller News Foundation
Two New York residents were charged Monday for operating a Chinese police station in lower Manhattan, New York, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Monday.
“Harry” Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping were arrested Monday morning at their New York City homes and will appear before a judge in Brooklyn Monday afternoon, according to the DOJ’s press release. The charges include “conspiring to act as agents of the [People’s Republic of China] government and “obstructing justice by destroying evidence of their communications with an [Ministry of Public Security] official.”
The pair allegedly did not inform the U.S. government that they were helping operate the police station under the direction of an MPS official, according to the DOJ. The station, which was located on a single floor in a Chinatown office building, was closed in fall 2022 after the FBI launched an investigation during which Jianwang and Jinping allegedly admitted to having deleted digital communication between them and the MPS official.
“The PRC, through its repressive security apparatus, established a secret physical presence in New York City to monitor and intimidate dissidents and those critical of its government,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the DOJ’s National Security Division said in the press release. “The PRC’s actions go far beyond the bounds of acceptable nation-state conduct. We will resolutely defend the freedoms of all those living in our country from the threat of authoritarian repression.”
The defendants could face up to five years in prison if convicted of “conspiring to act as” PRC agents and up to twenty years if convicted of obstructing justice.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) opened police stations in more than 100 cities in different countries in an effort to intimidate and harass Chinese citizens overseas. Beau Dietl, retired NYPD detective and head of a private investigation firm, previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the U.S. government “should deal with this and throw them the hell out.”
“This is a disgrace. How in God’s name could they openly have these communist police stations in our country?” he said.
