Washington: After securing the third term, Chinese President Xi Jinping thought that he could expand his influence across the world but started on a negative point as FBI counterintelligence raided an office building in New York that was allegedly being used as a secret Chinese police station, according to epardafas.com.
The raid occurred at the American “Changle Association” headquarters, a non-profit organization that used to help Chinese nationals in New York.
According to the Nepali website, the group’s former chairman was Lu Jianshun, who in 2021 donated USD 4,000 to Eric Adams’ mayoral campaign, epardafas.com reported citing The New York Times.
China’s secret police were located on the third floor of the organization’s building and its unit is linked to unit code 11- Overseas, based in the Chinese province of Fujian.
Interestingly, after the FBI revealed the receptionist at the acupuncturist’s office about the “secret police station,” the responsible person seemed to be surprised.
At the time of the visit, the station was closed and locals they spoke with said it was seldom opened.
The Chinese police stations’ existence in the US and elsewhere came about due to reporting from Safeguard Defenders, a Europe-based human rights organization, according to epardafas.com.
In September last year, Madrid-based Safeguard Defenders released its investigation 110 Overseas – China’s Transnational Policing Gone Wild, followed later by case studies of how such stations had been used in persuasion operations in Spain and Serbia, The New York Times (NYT) reported.
This report was followed by a statement from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs that seemingly admitted to its use of such persuasion operations abroad, even in countries that do have extradition treaties.
According to the NYT, the investigation follows Safeguard Defenders’ wider report on the growing use of illegal extra-judicial mechanisms to return individuals to China against their will by exerting various forms of pressure, often involving the use of threats and harassment against family members back home or directly against the targeted individual abroad.