More countries are looking into Chinese overseas police stations, despite Beijing's denials.

 

File photo: A Chinese police station in Budapest, Hungary, allegedly unknown to the Hungarian government.

A growing number of governments are investigating Chinese secret police stations allegedly operating within their borders.

Earlier, a series of investigations by Safeguard Defenders, a human rights organization in Madrid, Spain, made countries around the world wary of China's alleged overseas police station activities.

On Dec. 22, Japan announced it was investigating reports that China was secretly operating a police station on Japanese soil.

On December 20, South Korea announced a similar investigation. Prior to this, both Europe and North America had begun investigations into China's alleged secret policing activities overseas.

File photo: The exterior of the Hungarian Qingtian Association in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.

On December 22, a reporter from South Korea's Yonhap News Agency asked Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning about Beijing's alleged establishment of secret police stations overseas. Mao Ning denied the reports.

She stated: "China has always adhered to the principle of non-interference in domestic affairs, strictly adheres to international law, and respects all countries' judicial sovereignty. The ostensibly Chinese "overseas police stations" you mentioned do not exist."

The above statement is misleading. While China rebuts the allegations, several so-called "police service stations" were apparently set up without the knowledge of the host country. Because of this, these Chinese overseas police stations are illegal, Protection Defenders said.

In a report released in September this year, Protection Guardian disclosed the existence of a network of "overseas service stations" for Chinese police and overseas Chinese. According to the report, because "110" is an alarming number in China, these service stations are also called "Overseas 110". The report also stated that China operates at least 54 such "service stations" overseas, "in dozens of countries and across five continents.

The report cites numerous sources in support of its allegations, including Chinese government documents and announcements, as well as Chinese state media coverage of law enforcement efforts to crack down on telecom fraud.

Independent investigations by the Spanish newspaper El Correo, as well as the Netherlands-based RTL Nieuws and the Follow the Money investigative website, have further corroborated the Defenders' allegations.

The investigations also prompted the governments of Ireland and the Netherlands to order China to close the above-mentioned "service stations" it had set up in the two countries.

On December 5, Protection Guardian released a follow-up report following the report in September, which newly disclosed another 48 overseas police stations in addition to the previously reported 54 overseas stations, "bringing the total to 102, distributed in. ...53 countries."

The September report by Protection Guardian traced China's covert policing activities overseas to some local police bureaus in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces. In the new report, Protection Defenders said the "vast majority of the newly disclosed sites" were set up by public security bureaus in Nantong and Wenzhou.

While the central government in Beijing does not directly manage these police stations, Protection Defenders said some of Beijing's statements and policies "suggest that the central government is strengthening its role in encouraging the establishment of such police stations".

China has previously said that these overseas sites are not involved in covert policing activities, but instead "assist local Chinese citizens in need with online medical examination services for Chinese driver's license renewal" and provide other administrative services that have been disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Defenders reported that most of the new sites "have been established since 2016", refuting China's claim that "(these sites) started operating in response to the COVID-19 outbreak".

The human rights group further stated that setting up such sites without the permission of the host country, even if they only provide consular services, is a serious violation of the territorial and judicial sovereignty of the host country.

For example, when the Netherlands ordered China to close the police service stations it allegedly set up in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the Dutch foreign minister also pointed out that China had “did not seek permission from the Netherlands” for these stations. China has previously said the sites in the Netherlands were only providing diplomatic assistance.

The Dutch radio station RTL and the investigative news website Follow the Money both said in their reports that these sites were being used to harass Chinese dissidents abroad.

The Defender's report further indicated that these police stations allegedly set up by China overseas participated in Beijing's "persuading return" campaign against overseas Chinese citizens.

This coincides with Beijing's controversial "Operation Fox Hunt.

"Fox Hunt" was reported on the "Lie-Exposing Channel" of Voice of America. "Operation Fox Hunt" is described by the Chinese government as an overseas hunt for fugitives used to repatriate "economic crimes", but many media and rights organizations have reported that Beijing uses this operation to kidnap and forcibly repatriate overseas through illegal channels Chinese dissidents. The U.S. government regards the Chinese government's "Operation Fox Hunt" as illegal cross-border law enforcement.

It is alleged that some of the activities under the "Operation Fox Hunt" program were carried out without informing or coordinating with the government of the country where the target was hunted.

According to reports, Chinese Uyghurs living overseas are often the target of intimidation by the Chinese government in various overseas " long arm " operations , including attempts to force them to return home through various means.

In this latest report, Protection Defenders reports evidence that an overseas Chinese police station in Aubervilliers, on the northern outskirts of Paris, was involved in a "persuasion to return" operation.

According to the report, the police station was established in 2018 by the Chinese Federation of Overseas Chinese and public security officials in Zhejiang Province, and is led by Hu Renai, the honorary chairman of the Sino-French Garment Industry Chamber of Commerce.

"After the liaison station was upgraded, we participated in the mediation of too many property disputes involving overseas Chinese, and tried to resolve the disputes between the parties through repeated "persuasion," Hu Renai told Chinese media in October 2021, according to the report. "In October 2019, I was entrusted by the domestic public security organs to help persuade a criminal who had fled in France for many years to return to China through multiple visits.

An unnamed official at China's foreign ministry in Shanghai appeared to confirm China's overseas policing operations to the Spanish Post. In an interview with the newspaper, the official argued that the actions helped overcome some bureaucratic hurdles.

The bilateral treaty is quite complicated, Europe won't extradite anyone to China, and I don't see anything wrong with pressuring offenders to face justice. the Chinese representative told the Spanish Post. He also claimed that the Chinese side "only uses legal means".

Chinese nationals from other places, including Serbia and Spain, have also been "persuaded to return" to China, Protection Guardian said in the report.

China sometimes cooperates with other countries to carry out these "persuading return" operations. Protection Guardian reports that official overseas police stations involving central government agencies in Beijing are also being established across Asia and Africa, with the cooperation of some host governments.

Protection Defenders criticized these host governments for being complicit in facilitating Beijing's repatriation campaign without "taking into account internationally established standards of due process and protection mechanisms.

For example, China has 11 secret police stations in Italy. Italy has several security agreements with China, including the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China and the Ministry of the Interior of the Italian Republic on Joint Police Patrols signed on 24 September 2015 .

Despite having the largest number of police liaison posts within its borders, the Italian government is, so far, one of the few European countries that has not publicly announced an investigation into or outlawed a Chinese overseas police station,” wrote Protection Defenders.

On Dec. 19, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the country would stop allowing China to conduct joint police patrols on its territory. But before that, Piantedossi also said that the joint police patrol agreement between the two countries had nothing to do with the police stations operated by China on Italian territory.

Then on December 23, an Italian MP said that an investigation had been launched against China's "unofficial police station" in Italy.

In a separate investigation, US magazine Newsweek reportedly listed nine — some confirmed, some suspected — Chinese proxy police stations and courts in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. At the end of October, a member surnamed Zheng of the Changle Association of New York who hosted the "Fuzhou Police and Overseas Chinese Affairs US Station" told the Chinese Department of Voice of America that the service station in New York "is no longer there and has been cancelled."

(See also the English -language version of this article on VOA's Lies-Exposing Channel .)