(TibetanReview.net, Dec21’24) –In a damning indictment of China’s transnational repression of its critics and others, a Chinese resident in New York who operated a “secret police station” in the Chinatown district of Manhattan to aid Beijing’s targeting of dissidents has pleaded guilty on Dec 18 to conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent, reported Reuters Dec 19.
Chen Jinping, 61, has entered the plea at a hearing in Brooklyn Federal Court before US District Judge Nina Morrison. He is said to face up to five years in prison when sentenced on May 30, 2025.
Chen has also admitted in court to removing an online article about the alleged police station on behalf of China’s government in Sep 2022. He has said he was not registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent at the time, as US law requires of people acting for other countries.
Chen and a New York-based co-defendant, Lu Jianwang, were initially arrested on Apr 17, 2023. Lu has pleaded not guilty to the same charge, as well as to obstruction of justice.
The report noted that the arrests followed a 2022 investigation published by Spain-based advocacy group Safeguard Defenders that reported China had set up overseas “service stations,” including in New York, that illegally worked with Chinese police to pressure fugitives to return to China.
China continues to deny having set up any such facility in other countries. “There are no so-called secret police stations,” Lin Jian, spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry, has said Dec 19, when asked about the Manhattan case at a regular news conference.
“(China) has always strictly abided by international law and respected the judicial sovereignty of all countries,” Lin has claimed, adding he had no knowledge of the specifics of the case.
China maintains that there are centres outside China run by local volunteers, not Chinese police officers, that aim to help Chinese citizens renew documents such as driving license and offer other services. It has accused Washington of fabricating the charges to smear China’s image.
While the facility may indeed be helping to provide such service, prosecutors have also said that in 2022, Lu was asked by Beijing to locate an individual living in California who was considered a pro-democracy activist.
Before that, in 2018, Lu had sought to persuade an individual considered a fugitive by China to return home, prosecutors have said.