The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)operates around 100 secret police outposts in other countries around the world. We now know last fall, the FBI raided one of those outposts in New York City.
The office was one node in a network of Chinese police outposts around the world that officials are increasingly worried about as a way for China to spy on foreign countries and keep tabs on its people abroad.
According to reporting from the New York Times, the FBI raided a third-floor office in a six-story building in New York’s Chinatown. The office was under investigation for conducting police operations without jurisdiction or diplomatic approval.
China is suspected of operating similar outposts in Japan, Taiwan, Ireland, Canada, France, and several other nations.
It’s not unheard of for police officers to operate in foreign countries, but they usually declare themselves to the foreign government and work in cooperation with local authorities. China not doing so makes these suspected Chinese police outposts all the more concerning.
The raid by FBI counterintelligence agents was conducted in conjunction with the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn as part of the U.S. government’s crackdown on communist China’s notorious effort to surveil their citizens and hunt down dissidents overseas and force them to return back to China.
The global effort by China, which is present in numerous countries around the world, is known as “Operation Fox Hunt.”
China, which is known for making blatantly false statements, attempted to downplay what these police centers do and suggested that it was just some volunteers who helped people obtain things like a driver’s license.
The Times reviewed numerous reports from inside China that showed that Chinese officials bragged about the effectiveness of the “overseas police service centers,” which collect intelligence for the Chinese government. Many of the reports were subsequently deleted from China’s internet.
“It’s extremely worrying from the human rights perspective. We’re essentially allowing the Chinese diaspora to be controlled by [communist China] rather than subject to our national laws,” said Igor Merheim-Eyre, an adviser to a Slovakian member of the European Parliament. “That obviously has a huge impact — not only for our relations with the Chinese diaspora across Europe, but also has huge implications for national sovereignty.”
One example of the Chinese taking efforts to hide their actions came in Europe when a Hungarian lawmaker said he visited a Chinese police center that was clearly marked as “Qingtian Police Overseas Service Station.” After the lawmaker talked about what he saw, the signs instantly vanished.
Watch the video below for more details:
Sources: 100PercentFedUp, New York Times
