China Runs Police Outpost In New York City – technocracy.news

The long arm of Chinas police reaches into other countries where Chinese citizens reside, encouraging them to return to the homeland to face criminal prosecution. The first in the U.S. was New York City. This is reminiscent of Chinas Confucius Centers at universities nationwide that spied on academia. TN Editor

Chinese authorities have opened at least one overseas police service station in the United States as part of the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) global transnational repression, according to the human rights groupSafeguard Defenders.

These operations eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate the international rule of law,and may violate the territorial integrity in third countries involved in setting up a parallel policing mechanism using illegal methods, the Spain-based group said in a recent report.

Thereport, titled 110 Overseas: Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild, examined the initiative, which was begun by 10 pilot provinces in 2018. These stations also are called 110 Overseas, named after the countrys police emergency services phone number.

An outpost in New York City was among the first batch of 30 overseas police service stations in 21 countriesset up by the Public Security Bureau in Fuzhou, the capital city of the southern coastal province of Fujian. Other Chinese cities also set up their own outposts abroad.

The Chinese police authorities division in New York opened on Feb. 15, according to Dongnan News, a media outlet backed by the Fujian provincial government. The center, called Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, is located at 107 East Broadway, inside the headquarters of the American ChangLe Association (ACA), a nonprofit with close ties to the Chinese regime.

Safeguard Defenders identified 54 overseas police service stations across five continents, including in cities fromTorontotoDublin.

The total number of such stations is unclear.

There is no complete list of such 110 Overseas police service stations available, the report states. [T]he number is undoubtedly larger and such stations more widespread.

Established in 1998, the ACA is one of the most influential communities for immigrants from Fujian Province in the United States, according to its website.

The ACA cooperated with Fuzhous Public Security Bureau to set up the Fuzhou police service station this year, the associations chairman said in April during an event at the groups office while hosting the deputy Chinese consulate general in New York, Wu Xiaoming, Dongnan Newsreportedat the time. Wu, according to the report, recognized the associations contribution to promoting Sino-U.S. friendship and supporting Chinas peaceful reunification.

The New York community group, as with many purportedly grassroots Chinese organizations, is linked to the Chinese Communist Partys sprawling united front system. That refers to a network of thousands of overseas groups loosely overseen by the United Front Work Department, a powerful Party agency that works to advance the regimes interests abroad, including by carrying out foreign influence operations,suppressing dissident movements, gathering intelligence, and facilitating the transfer of technology to China.

The ACA maintains close ties to the regime and hasbeen praised for its efforts in supporting CCP and its leaders. Photos displayed on its website include acertificate of appreciationfrom the Chinese consulate in New York in 2015. The consulate praised the ACA for playing an active role in organizing overseas Chinese nationals to welcome Chinese leader Xi Jinping when he traveled to New York to attend United Nations meetings at that time.

The groups former president, Zhang Zikuo, in 2019 attended an official ceremony in Beijing to mark the 70th year of CCP rule over China as a representative of overseas Chinese nationals in the United States, according to a 2020reportby the Fuzhou City Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese.

In May 2020, Zhang, then-president of the ACA, attended an online seminar organized by the United Front Department of Fuzhous Changle District, during which they had an in-depth study of the spirit of the two sessions, the report reads. Two sessions refers to annual meetings held by the regimes rubber-stamp legislature and political advisory body.

Ostensibly, the overseas police service stations serve administrative purposes, with many tasks the report said that would be traditionally considered of a consular nature.

For example, the New York stations most popular service was assisting overseas Chinese in renewing drivers licenses without having to return to the country, according to an Augustreportby Dongnan News.The report said that from March 1 to April 27, 36 applications completed an online physical examination at the station and had their drivers licenses renewed.

The stations make overseas Chinese feel the care and love of the motherland, ACA Chairman Lu Jianshun told Dongnan News. The report mentions that Lu also is a staff member at the New York station.

Safeguard Defenders, however, saidsuch 110 overseas have a more sinister goal, as they contribute to resolutely cracking down on all kinds of illegal and criminal activities involving overseas Chinese.Some of the stations have already been implicated in collaborating with Chinese police in carrying out policing operations on foreign soil, the group said.

One example provided in the report was the successful return of a Chinese fugitive surnamed Xia, who was accused of fraud and fled to Serbia.

Read full story here

View original post here:
China Runs Police Outpost In New York City - technocracy.news