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CCP Runs Police Outpost in New York City, Part of Global Network of Transnational Repression: Report
Chinese authorities have opened at least one âoverseas police service stationâ in the United States as part of the Chinese Communist Partyâs (CCP) global transnational repression, according to human rights group Safeguard Defenders.âThese operations eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate the international rule of law, and may violate the territorial integrity in third countries involved in setting up a parallel policing mechanism using illegal methods,â the Spain-based group said in a recent report.
The report, titled â110 Overseas: Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild,â examined the initiative first launched by ten âpilot provincesâ in 2018. These stations were also called 110 Overseas, named after the countryâs police emergency services phone number.
An outpost in New York City was among the âfirst batchâ of 30 overseas police service stations in 21 countries set up by the Public Security Bureau in Fuzhou city, the capital of the southern coastal province of Fujian. Other Chinese cities also set up their own outposts abroad.
The Chinese police authoritiesâ division in New York was opened on Feb. 15, according to Dongnan News, a media outlet backed by Fujian provincial government. The center, called Fuzhou Police Oversea Service Station, is located at 107 East Broadway, inside the headquarters of the American ChangLe Association (ACA), a non profit with close ties to the Chinese regime.
Safeguard Defenders identified 54 overseas police service stations across five continents, including in cities from Toronto to Dublin.
Yet the total number of such stations is unclear. âThere is no complete list of such â110 Overseasâ police service stations available,â the report stated. â[T]he number is undoubtedly larger and such stations more widespread,â it added.
ACA
Established in 1998, the ACA is one of the most influential communities for immigrants from Fujian Province in the United States, according to its website.
The ACA cooperated with Fuzhou cityâs Public Security Bureau to set up the Fuzhou police service station this year, the associationâs chairman said at an April event at the groupâs office hosting the deputy Chinese consulate general in New York, Wu Xiaoming, Dongnan News reported at the time. Wu, according to the report, recognized the associationâs contribution to âpromoting Sino-U.S. friendship and supporting Chinaâs peaceful reunification.â
The New York community group, like many purportedly grassroots Chinese organizations, is linked to the Chinese Communist Partyâs sprawling âunited frontâ system. This refers to a network of thousands of overseas groups loosely overseen by the United Front Work Department, a powerful Party agency, that work to advance the regimeâs interests abroad, including by carrying out foreign influence operations, suppress dissident movements, gather intelligence, and facilitate the transfer of technology to China.
The ACA has maintained close ties to the regime and has been praised for its efforts in supporting CCP and its leaders. Photos displayed on its website include the certificate of appreciation from the Chinese consulate in New York in 2015. The consulate praised the ACA for playing an active role in organizing overseas Chinese nationals to welcome Chinese leader Xi Jinping when he traveled to New York to attend the United Nations meetings at that time.
The groupâs former president Zhang Zikuo in 2019 attended an official ceremony in Beijing marking the 70th year of CCP rule over China as a representative of overseas Chinese nationals in the United States, according to a 2020Â report by the Fuzhou City Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese.
In May 2020, Zhang, then-president of the ACA, attended an online seminar organized by the United Front Department of Fuzhou cityâs Changle District, during which they had an âin-depth study of the spirit of the two sessions,â read the report. âTwo sessionsâ refers to annual meetings held by the regimeâs rubber-stamp legislature and political advisory body.
âSinister Goalâ
Ostensibly, the overseas police service stations serve administrative purposes, with many tasks the report said that would be âtraditionally considered of a consular nature.â
For example, the New York stationâs most popular service was assisting overseas Chinese in renewing driverâs licenses without returning to the country, according to an August report by Dongnan News. The report said that between March 1 to April 27, 36 applications completed an online physical examination at the station and got their driverâs licenses renewed.
The stations make overseas Chinese feel the âcare and loveâ of the motherland, Lu Jianshun, the ACA chairman, told Dongnan News. The report mentioned that Lu is also a staff member of the New York police service station.
Safeguard Defenders, however, said such 110 overseas have a âmore sinister goal as they contribute to âresolutely cracking down on all kinds of illegal and criminal