US arrests 2 suspected of running Chinese ‘secret police station’ in New York
- Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, are accused of conspiring to act as agents of China’s government without informing US authorities
- Lu also allegedly harassed and threatened an individual considered a fugitive by China in a bid to persuade the person to return to the country
Two New York residents were arrested by the FBI on suspicion of operating a “secret police station” in Manhattan’s Chinatown on behalf of Beijing, federal prosecutors announced on Monday.
Forty-four others who remain at large were also charged, accused of targeting and intimidating Chinese dissidents in the US.
The two men – Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx and Chen Jinping, 59, of Manhattan – were charged with conspiring to act as agents of the Chinese government without informing US authorities, and obstruction of justice by destroying evidence of communications with an official from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS), prosecutors in Brooklyn said.
Lu and Chen are US citizens who lead a non-profit organisation that lists its mission as providing a social gathering place for people from China’s Fujian province, according to the criminal complaint.
Prosecutors said they acted under the “direction and control” of the MPS official to do “the PRC’s bidding”, including setting up the police station at the offices of their non-profit. Lu is accused of seeking to persuade someone considered to be a fugitive by China to return in 2018; of participating in counterprotests in Washington against members of the Falun Gong religion, which is forbidden under Chinese law, in 2015; and of helping to locate a Chinese dissident living in California in 2022.