*They are volunteer-run, not police stations- China.
FBI Director Christopher Wray, on Thursday, told US lawmakers that the United States is extremely concerned about the Chinese government setting up unauthorized "police stations" in American cities to potentially conduct influence operations.
The human rights group, Safeguard Defenders, located in Europe, revealed the existence of dozens of Chinese police "service stations" in major cities all over the world, including New York, Nigeria, Lesotho, and Tanzania, in a study released in September and entitled ‘110 Overseas Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild’, saying that the stations were established across Africa, Europe, and America, among others.
Republicans in Congress questioned the Biden administration regarding the influence of such stations.
Rights activists said the stations were an extension of Beijing's initiatives to put pressure on some Chinese nationals or their families living overseas to return to China and face criminal proceedings.
Additionally, they have linked them to the activities of China's United Front Work Department, an organization run by the Communist Party in charge of exporting its influence and propaganda abroad.
Wray told a U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, "I'm very concerned about this. We are aware of the existence of these stations." But, he declined to give detail of the FBI's investigative work on the issue.
"But to me, it is outrageous to think that the Chinese police would attempt to set up shop, you know, in New York, let's say, without proper coordination. It violates the sovereignty and circumvents standard judicial and law enforcement cooperation processes."
When Republican Senator Rick Scott questioned Wray about whether or not these stations broke American law, Wray responded that the FBI was "looking into the legal parameters."
In October, Republican members of the US House of Representatives—including Greg Murphy and Mike Waltz—sent letters to the Justice Department inquiring whether President Joe Biden's administration was looking into such stations and arguing that they might be used to intimidate Americans of Chinese descent.
According to Wray, the United States has filed several indictments alleging that the Chinese government has harassed, stalked, surveilled, and blackmailed people in the United States who oppose Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
"It's a real problem and something that we're talking with our foreign partners about, as well, because we're not the only country where this has occurred," he said.
Seven Chinese nationals were charged by the United States in October, with criminally waging a surveillance and harassment campaign against a U.S. resident and his family, in an effort by the Chinese government to extradite one of them to China.
It was the most recent case brought by the Justice Department against China's "Operation Fox Hunt" which is an effort by Beijing to track down individuals living abroad whom Beijing considers criminal suspects.
After the Dutch government ordered their closure as part of an investigation into their operations, the Chinese foreign ministry earlier this month denied having such stations in the Netherlands saying that the offices assist Chinese citizens with document renewal. Investigations of similar sites have also been requested by members of the British parliament.
China pushes back
China on Friday denied claims that it was running police stations in the US, saying that the sites are volunteer-run.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington admitted that they were volunteer-run locations in the US, but insisted that the sites did not qualify as "police stations" or "police service centers."
"They assist overseas Chinese nationals who need help in accessing the online service platform to get their driving licenses renewed and receive physical check-ups for that purpose," Embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu told Reuters in an email on Friday.
"They are not police personnel from China. The U.S. side should stop the groundless hyping of this issue," Liu said.
When Reuters asked the Embassy for a list of the locations, they did not respond immediately. The FBI also opted not to comment beyond Wray's words.
Such stations needed to be "stopped in their tracks," according to Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation.
"By allowing the CCP to operate these types of institutions in their countries, international governments are complicit in Beijing's actions," Clifford said.
Chinese Police stations in Nigeria.
Vanguard reported in October that China established a police station in Nigeria based on the investigative report carried out by the rights group, Safeguard Defenders.
However, a few days after, in an exclusive interview with Vanguard, a top Chinese official who asked not to be named denied that China has a Police station in Nigeria stressing that it was against diplomatic relations for any government to run police posts in another country outside its borders.
The source said, “There is no such station in Nigeria or anywhere. This is because no sovereign country may allow other countries to establish their own (police) stations on their territory. “Isn’t this common sense?”
The Chinese official disclosed that outreach programs exist in countries where Chinese citizens are residents to assist and protect them from terrorism, abduction, and other crimes that could risk their lives.
“Also, there is only one category of outreach services for Chinese communities, therefore China has no intention or spare energy to run police stations outside its borders,” he said.
"You know in Nigeria, there are a lot of insecurity issues happening almost every day. I cannot remember, maybe September or August or July or June, there were terrorists, bandits, they had kidnapped a lot of innocent persons, and also among these innocent persons, there were some Chinese nationals.
He said that the outreach services work with local security operatives in managing such criminal incidents.
Another source from the Chinese side also told Vanguard, "What I mean (by the outreach services) is that every nation has its mission to care for and help their nationals.
He further said: “So they have no right, they have no power to decide or command Nigeria government or police forces, what they can only do is to assist or play the outside role to help the Chinese nationals.”
"So the fundamental reason or factor is the locals and the Nigerian government, so we fully respect the sovereignty issue. So there is no sovereignty issue, so the report ( Safeguard Defenders’ ‘110 Overseas Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild’) is fake news,” the source said.
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