On Monday, the DOJ announced the arrest of “Harry” Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx, and Chen Jinping, 59, of Manhattan — in connection with the operation of an illegal “police station” in lower Manhattan. RedState first reported, in October, on the dozens of these secret outposts that have cropped up throughout the world. Their purpose, ostensibly, is to monitor Chinese citizens living abroad. At the time, only one such station was identified in the U.S., while three were noted in Toronto, and others in London, Amsterdam, Prague, Budapest, Paris, Madrid, and Frankfurt. 54 stations (at least) were identified in 30 different countries.

Now, according to the New York Post, six more such stations have been exposed in the U.S.

In addition to the Chinese police station above a noodle restaurant in Manhattan’s Chinatown, there is another station at an undisclosed address in New York City, as well as an outpost in Los Angeles, according to a new report by Safeguard Defenders.

…

In addition to Los Angeles and New York, the nonprofit has found so-called “overseas service stations” in San Francisco and Houston as well as in cities in Nebraska and Minnesota.

These law enforcement organizations, operated by the Chinese Communist Party, are tasked with spying on Chinese nationals around the world.

Safeguard Defenders bills itself as:

a human rights NGO founded in late 2016 that undertakes and supports local field activities that contribute to the protection of basic rights, promote the rule of law and enhance the ability of local civil society and human rights defenders in some of the most hostile environments in Asia.

How did the group identify these additional secret police stations?

“We found at least four listed in the US by PRC [People’s Republic of China] public security authorities, plus flagged an additional four overseas Chinese service centers in the US set up by the UFWD networks responsible for manning the stations,” a spokeswoman for Safeguard Defenders told The Post Tuesday.

UFWD is an acronym for United Front Work Department, a Chinese government agency that controls overseas ethnic and religious affairs.

Often, the police stations — whose operatives allegedly spy on dissidents and others — hide behind nonprofits and community associations, according to Safeguard Defenders’ reports.

In conjunction with the arrest of Lu and Chen on Monday, the DOJ issued a press release setting forth details regarding the case:

“The PRC, through its repressive security apparatus, established a secret physical presence in New York City to monitor and intimidate dissidents and those critical of its government,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “The PRC’s actions go far beyond the bounds of acceptable nation-state conduct. We will resolutely defend the freedoms of all those living in our country from the threat of authoritarian repression.”

“This prosecution reveals the Chinese government’s flagrant violation of our nation’s sovereignty by establishing a secret police station in the middle of New York City,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York. “As alleged, the defendants and their co-conspirators were tasked with doing the PRC’s bidding, including helping locate a Chinese dissident living in the United States, and obstructed our investigation by deleting their communications. Such a police station has no place here in New York City – or any American community.”

What role did Lu and Chen play in this?

Before helping to open the police station in early 2022, Lu had a longstanding relationship of trust with PRC law enforcement, including the MPS. Since 2015, and through the operation of the secret police station, Lu was tasked with carrying out various activities, including to assist the PRC government’s repressive activities on U.S. soil:

• In 2015, during PRC President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States, Lu participated in counterprotests in Washington, D.C,. against members of a religion that is forbidden under PRC law. A deputy director of the MPS awarded Lu a plaque for the work he performed on behalf of the PRC government.
• In 2018, Lu was enlisted in efforts to cause a purported PRC fugitive to return to the PRC. The victim reported being repeatedly harassed to return to the PRC, including through threats of violence made to the victim and the victim’s family in the United States and in the PRC.
• In 2022, the MPS Official sought Lu’s assistance in locating an individual living in California who is a pro-democracy activist. In turn, Lu enlisted the help of another coconspirator. Later, when confronted by the FBI about these conversations, Lu denied that they occurred.

In October 2022, the FBI conducted a judicially authorized search of the illegal police station. In connection with the search, FBI agents interviewed both Lu and Chen and seized their phones. In reviewing the contents of these phones, FBI agents observed that communications between Lu and Chen, on the one hand, and the MPS Official, on the other, appeared to have been deleted. In subsequent consensual interviews, Lu and Chen admitted to the FBI that they had deleted their communications with the MPS Official after learning about the ongoing FBI investigation, thus preventing the FBI from learning the full extent of the MPS’s directions for the overseas police station.

Also of interest, as noted by the Post, New York City Mayor Eric Adams was the guest of honor at the annual gala dinner for the America ChangLe Association NY Inc., the non-profit which owns the building in which the police station was housed, though Adams did not disclose his participation in the September 2022 event on his official agenda.

Are these other identified outposts also under investigation by the DOJ? If not, it sounds as though they should be.