https://udumbara.net/unofficial-chinese-police-stations-in-canada-likely-number-more-than-3-says-report-co-author
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Unofficial Chinese Police Stations in Canada Likely Number More Than 3, Says Report Co-Author
The Chinese regime has likely established more unofficial overseas police stations in Canada than the three in Toronto identified in a report by a human rights NGO, a co-author of the report says.Spain-based Safeguard Defenders published a report in September warning of the regimeâs âlong-arm policingâ around the world through whatâs been dubbed the â110 overseas police stationsââan operation named after the police emergency phone number, 110, in China.
The report, titled â110 Overseas: Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild,â identified 54 Chinese overseas police stations in 30 countries, including 3 in Toronto. The stations are all under the jurisdiction of two local-level police services in Chinaâthe Fuzhou Public Security Bureau in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, and the Qingtian County police in Zhejiang Province, the report said.
Peter Dahlin, founder and director of Safeguard Defender and co-author of the report, says that following the release of his organizationâs findings, security police or related government agencies from North America and Europe have approached his organization asking âto sit down and have a briefing discussionâ on the Chinese operations overseas.
âSo they are certainly aware of it, at least in some countries,â Dahlin told The Epoch Times.
More Locations
While the Chinese authorities say these police stations are created to better serve its overseas nationals, the report noted that those stations have been used to âpersuadeâ up to 230,000 Chinese nationals to âvoluntarilyâ return to China to face criminal proceedings between April 2021 and July 2022.
âPersuasion to returnâ is a key method of the Chinese regimeâs âinvoluntary returnsâ operations, which include its âOperation Fox Huntâ and the broader âSky Netâ campaign, according to Safeguard Defenders. Many of the targets for persuasion to return were overseas Chinese allegedly involved in telecommunication fraud, though the report said a number of non-suspects and their family members in China have also been targeted for police harassment and intimation.
Map of the 30 countries where Chinese police have established 54 known â110 Chinese overseas police stations.â (Courtesy of Safeguard Defenders)
Dahlin said that in addition to the three stations in Torontoâtwo in Markham and one in Scarborough, whose locations were published in a Chinese state media outletâthere are likely other unofficial Chinese police stations either existing or being established in Canada, though they have yet to be discovered.
âWeâve also seen a [Chinese] government notice that said that 10 different provinces should launch these types of operations on a pilot basis,â he told The Epoch Times, pointing to the reportâs citation of a July 5, 2018, news release issued by the Chinese regime.
âSo, we have two of these operations uncovered [in Fujian Province and Zhejiang Province]. There might be eight more provinces doing this that could have their own stations, and we have not been able to track down that information yet. Thatâs why we keep saying that ⦠we believe and we have good reason to think that there are more [overseas Chinese police stations].â
The news release is in relation to the Chinese State Councilâs 2018 âWork Plan for the Supervision of the National Special Struggle Against Gang Crimes.â A Chinese state media reported in January 2019 that Beijing had conducted a first-round one-month supervision training from July to September 2018 in the 10 provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning, Fujian, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Guangdong, Chongqing, and Sichuan.
Another report that year, in April 2019, said the regime had completed a second-round training for another 11 provinces, including Zhejiang Province where the Qingtian police service is located.
Given the large Chinese diaspora population in Vancouver, Dahlin noted that he would find it âvery strangeâ if the city didnât have at least one 110 police station.
âTransnational Repressionâ
Safeguard Defenders says its September report is part of its ongoing monitoring of Chinaâs growing global transnational repression. Dahlin said the report came on the heels of another report by his organization, titled âInvoluntary Returnsâreport exposes long-arm policing overseas.â
That earlier report, published in January 2022, looked at the Chinese regimeâs claim in December 2021 that its Sky Net operations, along with partner Operation Fox Hunt, have successfully brought some 10,000 âfugitivesâ back to China from around the globe since 2014, when Fox Hunt was launched as part of Chinese leader Xi Jinpingâs anti-corruption campaign.
Those operations target what Dahlin described as âhigh-value targets.â Officially, Sky Net says it only targets economic criminals and officials accused of crimes like corruption or bribery, according to the Safeguard Defenders report, but Dahlin said Sky Net has been found to also target human rights defenders. Operations against high-value targets are run by the Chinese