Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director of the FBI New York Office, at a press conference hosted by the Department of Justice to announce the arrests in New York York on Monday. Photo: REUTERS/David 'Dee' Delgado
The FBI has arrested two alleged Chinese Communist Party agents for running «secret police stations» in downtown New York to spy on and intimidate exiles.
Arrests of Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, are the world's first criminal charges for Beijing's attempts to circumvent diplomatic and legal regulations to harass and harass its citizens beyond its borders.
Dozens of alleged Chinese «overseas police stations» have been discovered overseas, including in the UK, the Netherlands and Canada, prompting authorities to launch police investigations.
The US Department of Justice released what it called evidence on Monday expansion of Chinese government espionage and security activities on American soil.
The Manhattan allegation was one of three separate cases that had to be uncovered, suggesting more brazen Chinese actions inside the U.S. following the spy balloon controversy. police. Chinatown outpost in lower Manhattan on behalf of the People's Republic of China's Ministry of Public Safety.
Prosecutors said a Chinese national police officer assigned one of the defendants, a US citizen, to help find a pro-democracy activist of Chinese origin living in California.
“In other words, the Chinese National Police use the station to track a US resident on US soil,” said Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. offices located on the third floor of a nondescript building, last autumn.
When the raid was first reported, the Chinese Embassy in Washington downplayed the role of the posts, saying they were manned by volunteers helping Chinese citizens with routine tasks like renewing their driver's licenses at home.
New York prosecutors said that information about the search led the men to delete phone conversations made with their Chinese handlers.
The couple were charged with obstruction of justice and destruction of evidence, as well as conspiracy. act as agents of the People's Republic of China.
“It is simply outrageous that the Chinese Department of Public Security thinks it can get away with setting up a secret illegal police station on U.S. soil to aid its efforts to export repression and undermine our rule of law,” said Kurt Ronnow, acting assistant director of the department. FBI counterintelligence.
«This incident serves as a powerful reminder that the People's Republic of China will stop at nothing to bend the people to their will and silence messages they don't want anyone to hear.»
p>Two other complaints
In addition to the complaint in New York, two other complaints were filed in Washington, one against 34 members of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau and the other against a group of 10 members that included eight Chinese government officials.
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B The first was that members of the group created thousands of fake online personas on social media, including Twitter, to target Chinese dissidents with online harassment and threats.
These online personalities also spread official Chinese government propaganda and narratives to counter pro-democracy speeches by Chinese dissidents.
The DOJ alleges they were «spreading disinformation, attacking US democracy and blaming [the] US» for the emergence of the Covid-19 coronavirus.
The second case concerned Chinese security officials, who allegedly spied on Zoom calls. It is alleged that officials, along with an employee of a telecommunications company, disrupted meetings of dissenters on the platform.
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