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The FBI arrested two New York residents Monday on charges of acting as agents of the People’s Republic of China by operating a clandestine police station in Manhattan and using it to monitor and intimidate Chinese dissidents.
It is the first time criminal charges have been brought in connection with Beijing’s overseas police station, said Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for Brooklyn. The case is one of three filed Monday by federal prosecutors that accuse China of brazen espionage activity within the U.S.
Matthew G. Olsen, who heads the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said the People’s Republic of China’s actions “go far beyond the bounds of acceptable nation-state conduct.”
Prosecutors say Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping 59, assisted the Chinese government by operating the outpost — a nondescript office without an explicit “cover” — on behalf of the Fuzhou Municipal Security Bureau a branch of Beijing’s Ministry of Public Security.
Members of the Chinese consulate even paid a visit to the police station when it opened in 2022, according to Michael Driscoll, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office.
The secret police station was used by Chinese intelligence officials to track down a U.S. citizen who was a pro-democracy activist of Chinese descent living in California, according to the Justice Department.
“Two miles from our office just across the Brooklyn Bridge, this nondescript office building in the heart of bustling Chinatown in Lower Manhattan has a dark secret. Until several months ago, an entire floor of this building hosted an undeclared police station of the Chinese National Police,” Mr. Peace said. “Now, just imagine the NYPD opening an undeclared secret police station in Beijing.
