CCP Secret Police Caught In New York City
The Chinese Communist Party has again broken international law, in the same vein as their secret detention of Swedish book writer Gui Minhai and their Operation Fox Hunt campaign. Last week, the FBI arrested two members of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Manhattan due to the illegal operation of an overseas secret police department with the sole purpose of silencing critics and political opponents of the CCP.
According to Politico, Beijing has been operating a number of illegal outposts across the world, including places like London, Tokyo, and Rome, as a remote arm of China’s security network. Advocacy groups which have begun as opponents to these overseas secret police stations estimate at least 100 countries throughout the world have these facilities seeking to harass international Chinese citizens.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has gone on record in the past rejecting the accusation of China cracking down on dissent, claiming instead that these outposts are for international Chinese people to assist in “renewing their driver’s licenses” and that the operation is completely conducted within international law. On other occasions, Chinese spokespeople have completely denied the existence of these outposts or denied them as related to Chinese police personnel, claiming that to be disinformation aimed at dividing foreign relations between the world and the Chinese government.
In late 2022, multiple countries began investigations into these outposts, as establishing unregistered police stations on foreign soil is a violation of countries’ sovereignties. A few weeks later, the FBI raided a building in Chinatown, Manhattan, finding evidence of the CCP targeting Chinese-Americans as a way of surveillance. More evidence showed that propaganda was being distributed from these stations to local communities.
According to the New York Times, the propaganda would consist of stories of people, when a crime is committed against them, seeking Chinese police outposts rather than local authorities, where justice can be served for them through “negotiation and education” of criminals.
The FBI furthered the investigation into these stations, and have arrested two men operating an illegal Ministry of Public Security police station on the charges of conspiring to act as agents of the PRC and obstructing justice by destruction of evidence of their communications with an MPS official. Records held on the two men show they have a history of assisting the PRC government’s repressive activities on U.S. soil. One of the men participated in counter-protests against members of a religion that is forbidden under PRC law in Washington D.C., circa 2015. In 2018, the same man was enlisted into an operation of blackmail and harassment of a Chinese refugee to return back to the PRC. The victim reported that threats of violence against them and their family were made. In 2022, the man was involved in locating and silencing a pro-democracy activist living in California.
The man denies having done any of these activities, despite the mounting evidence against him. Furthermore, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security claims not to know the two men at all. The men are both facing a maximum of 25 years for both charges. U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace made a statement on these findings: “Today’s charges are a crystal clear response to the P.R.C. that we are onto you, we know what you’re doing and we will stop it from happening in the United States of America.”
The Federal Government plans to crack down further into these outposts that are harassing innocent Americans and further preventing the illegal depredations of the CCP on internationals. As more information comes out from what the CCP is doing, it is possible that their reach in “public security” may span further than previously believed.