FBI bust secret Chinese police force operating in NYC
Over two dozen people have been arrested for allegedly running a secret police station in New York City under the direction of the People’s Republic of China. The secret police officers are accused of using fake online profiles to threaten, harass, and intimidate Chinese dissidents living in America.
The police station was discovered in New York City’s Chinatown neighborhood and had been operating since February 2022.
The lower Manhattan secret police station took over the entire floor of the building where it was found.
Three separate complaints were announced by the New York Eastern District's Attorney's Office, the New York and Washinton DC FBI field offices, and the Department of Justice during a press conference held Monday in New York City.
The first was an arrest of two New York City men allegedly working directly for the secret police station.
“New York City is home to New York’s finest, the NYPD. We don’t need or want a secret police station in our great city,” said Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
“Just imagine the NYPD opening an undeclared, secret police station in Beijing. It would be unthinkable,” Peace said.
The two named defendants, Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping, have each been charged with conspiring to act as agents of China's government.
Arrested at their homes in NYC, the two are also accused of destroying evidence to prevent the FBI of learning the extent of the secret operation.
The FBI conducted a search of the police station and seized phones belonging to the two individuals but found communications with secret Chinese officials were deleted after learning of the FBI investigation.
Another complaint names 34 individuals charged with working in conjunction with China’s national police force, known as the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS).
The 34 MPS police officers arrested were said to be part of a "9-12 Special Project Working Group" aimed at harassing, threatening, and intimidating Chinese dissidents and critics who had fled China and were now living in the US, some of them as American citizens.
The MPS officers are accused of using an “internet troll farm,” creating thousands of fake online personas and false accounts to infiltrate and shut down online meeting groups on various social media platforms critical of the Chinese government.
The FBI also said the MPS operatives would use fake online personas to sow political division in US national elections, and misdirect other hotbed topics, such as the COVID-19 virus.
"The individuals charged today are operatives in supporting the Chinese government's campaign to export repression and crush any criticism of its failings by trampling freedom of thought and expression, including here in the United States," said David Sundberg, Washington DC's FBI assistant director in charge.
Members of the Chinese Consulate were reported to have paid a visit to the secret station in the weeks after it was established.
Chinatown is home to one of the largest populations of Chinese people in the Western hemisphere.
The Chinatown-based station was established under the false pretenses of helping to provide government services, such as applications for a Chinese driver's license, to local residents living in the area.
Under orders directly from Beijing, the MPS officers would manipulate and disseminate propaganda, post People's Republic of China (PRC) public messaging, and mine for information that would allow them to target certain individuals.
The MPS were said to have targeted Chinese dissidents, and critics of the regime based in the US and around the world, all under the direction of the PRC.
The third complaint charges ten individuals, including six MPS officials, with helping the Chinese government censor and silence the free speech of users of an unnamed US-based tech company platform.
One of the individuals allegedly worked for the US tech company in China.
That employee is accused of censoring speech on the US technology platform, including ending meetings and suspending user accounts critical of the PRC government, such as the Tiananmen Square massacre.
"The People's Republic of China, through its Ministry of Public Security, has engaged in a multifront campaign to extend the reach and impacts of its authoritarian system into the US and elsewhere around the world," one US official said.
"It shows the PRC's efforts to utilize impressive tactics used domestically in China to silence dissent," the official said.
Authorities are urging anyone who has been targeted to come to a local FBI field office or contact the FBI through the national TIPS hotline on the FBI.gov website.
