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The United States has launched a crackdown on what it calls Chinese police stations operating underground using a legal mechanism that does not exist in Canada, at least not yet – the foreign agent registry.
US authorities this week announced they had closed what they said was a Chinese police station in Manhattan.
The criminal charges brought are against two American citizens who allegedly failed to register their work on behalf of the People’s Republic of China.
In detail, authorities said the American suspects tried to hide the foreign contacts.
They said one spent seven minutes in the bathroom during the raid on the so-called station, desperate to delete text exchanges with Chinese state security officials.
That attempt to disguise the communication triggered the second flight criminal charges to two people, Chen Jinping and Lu Jianwang: obstruction of justice.
One is accused of helping Chinese state security agents try to find a dissident living in California who participated in pro-democracy protests in Beijing in 1989 and recently became a member of the US Congress. The description matches the Xiong Yan.
It is believed to be the first charge brought anywhere in the world against a person suspected of running an extra-territorial Chinese police station. More than 100 of these stations are believed to exist worldwide, including in Canada.
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said he was proud of the distinction. He mentioned that an authoritarian state could establish a police post in the heart of Manhattan, near the Brooklyn Bridge.
He ended his speech at the press conference with a message to the Chinese government: “We are on to you.”
“We know what you’re doing,” Peace said. “And we’re going to stop that happening in the United States.”
There is a Canadian connection to the case – and not just because of the least five such stations believed to be in Canada.
The indictment said that individuals from Canada and several other countries were present at the 2022 ceremony to launch the Fuzhou municipal police station to the world. The indictment shows photos collected from Lu’s phone, allegedly showing him attending the event with officials from China’s Ministry of Public Security.
“It’s huge,” said Laura Harth, campaign director for Safeguard Defenders, NGO based in Spain who have documented the station’s existence using the Chinese government’s open source website.
“[These arrests are] would have been received as big news in all the other capitals of the democratic world, where the authorities might not have proactively investigated the underground police station.
“So it’s really global news.”
He said he wasn’t complaining about Canada. In fact, Harth said, with the exception of the United States, Canada has actually done more than most countries to close these stations.
He claimed Ottawa to open an investigation and provided community members with a phone number (1-800-420-5805) and email (RCMP.NSIN-RISN.GRC@rcmp-grc.gc.ca) to contact if they are being harassed by staff from the station.
Harth said he understands the investigation will take time. “If we don’t hear anything again in a year [from Canada]”Okay, we’ll reevaluate,” he added.
“The operation is just the latest iteration of the Chinese Communist Party’s growing and rapidly expanding transnational campaign of repression,” Safeguard Defenders campaign director Laura Harth said. The human rights NGO said it had identified 102 Chinese police service stations operating in 53 countries, including five in Canada.
Three Canadian officials testified at a parliamentary hearing last month that, while no arrests were made here, stations in Canada were closed.
The deputy minister of public safety, the interim commissioner of the RCMP and the deputy minister of international development all told MPs in March that the office was closing.
RCMP Cmdr. Michael Duheme said the officers were in uniform, in marked vehicles, outside the four sites. “Our understanding has stopped [operating]”he said, adding that the investigation is ongoing.
Former federal officials: Only copy the UK registry
For the registry — the kind that leads to arrests in the U.S. — the Canadian government open public consultation in making one. The two-month consultation period ends in May.
The former head of Canada’s federal public service this week advised lawmakers on how to speed things up — just copy the British plan.
Michael Wernick, former clerk of the Privy Council, predicted before a House of Commons committee that a bill about to pass the British Parliament would affect Canada.
“Go to Google. Get the UK national security bill, which is before the UK Parliament right now. And copy and paste and bring it to Canada,” said Wernick.
“You will be able to solve these problems in a model made in Canada in a few months.”
Registration of foreign agents before the British Parliament is in the final stages of adoption as part of a wider national security bill.
It carries the maximum a two-year prison sentence for not registering political influence activities on behalf of foreign powers or foreign controlled entities.
Australia also established a registration of foreign agents in 2018.
Chuek Kwan, co-chair of the Toronto Democracy Association in China, said the country is also more proactive on the issue than Canada.
“What are we waiting for?” Kwan said in an interview. “Hurry up, let’s catch up on what Australia is doing.”
Attempts to intimidate members of the Chinese diaspora are not new, Safeguard Defenders reports.
Since the 1970s, he said, the Chinese Communist Party has sought to control expatriates because of fears rooted in China’s history.
A century ago, the diaspora around the world played a role in overthrowing China’s ancient imperial system of government.
“[And there’s] fear that this could happen again at CCP,” said one of Safeguard Defenders’ latest reports.
The group says it has found evidence of 102 such stations operating in 53 countries.
And he said an online statement from Chinese officials linked the station to 83 cases of people being forcibly returned to China.
Harth said he believes the real number is higher.
He cited evidence that thousands were forced back even before the Xi government launched its Operation Fox Hunt repatriation initiative in 2014, which led to US accusations against many Chinese. official in the end year.
A well-known Chinese analyst says efforts around the world to suppress dissent have intensified.
Bill Bishop, formerly based in Beijing and now author of the Sinocism blog in Washington, cites several factors: the Xi presidency, China’s greater global role and the emergence of new technologies that make it easier to track down dissidents.
“There is nothing like WeChat [in the ’90s] … There was no Twitter,” Bishop said.
“It’s definitely a different ball game now.”
The Chinese government insists that it is defamed.
The so-called police stations, he said, were set up during the COVID pandemic to help expatriates obtain public documents like driver’s licenses when traveling home is more difficult.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said the site is run by “local people who are kind enough to volunteer.”
He also said that China’s law enforcement efforts to defame the US will only convince more Chinese criminals to seek refuge in the US.
“This is just political manipulation and the goal is to damage China’s image,” Liu said in a media statement to CBC News.
Harth said he didn’t buy it.
He said his team report literally links to Chinese state websites and state media that show these police stations, and cases of forcibly repatriated people, including successful and unsuccessful repatriation attempts involving Canada or Canadians. citizen.
Harth said that even if it was a simple document center, which it wasn’t, the secrecy surrounding it would still be breached. Articles 2 to 5 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
Besides, he said, why would the police and national security agencies be responsible for creating a driver’s license center?
At the end of the day, there is a reality that is easier to play. At least in the US
If you are working on behalf of a foreign government, under US law, you must register your work in a public database searched online. Otherwise, it is a crime, and the maximum penalty five years in prison.
The bottom line in the Manhattan case, Peace said, is that “[registration] didn’t happen.”
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