The FBI arrested Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping for operating an illegal Chinese police station. They both are running a Chinese police station on behalf of China’s Ministry of Public Security in the middle of New York City, as told by the Justice Department.
Know more about Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping:
Source: The Japan Times
As per the reports, Chen Jinping and Lu Jianwang allegedly monitored the Chinese government. Both were released by the police on the bond to appear in an upcoming hearing in Brooklyn federal court.
Still, China’s embassy did not officially release any statement about this incident. According to the records, Chen and Lu are both U.S. citizens who run a nonprofit organization—the motive of this nonprofit organization is to gather people from China origin.
A report was published in 2022 by the Spain-based advocacy group; according to this report, China had set up many service stations worldwide, including in New York. These stations are working illegally with the China police to put pressure on Chinese fugitives to return to China.
These illegal stations, the Chinese government said, are run by local volunteers, not by the Chinese police officers, and the moto of these stations is to help the Chinese citizens with paperwork or renew other documents and many other services.
Now The Department of Justice is set to take a bold step in this “transnational repression”. On Monday, Prosecutors charges the 34 Chinese officials for allegedly operating a “troll farm”.
According to the Prosecutors, Lu and Chen admitted to the FBI that they cut out their connection with Chinese government officials. Christopher Wray, Director of FBI, told last November at the U.S. Senate committee he said that he was “very concerned” about the presence of such stations in the cities of the U.S.
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said:
Source: Yahoo News Canada
“As alleged, the PRC government deploys its national police and the 912 Special Project Working Group not as an instrument to uphold the law and protect public safety but rather as a troll farm that attacks persons in our country for exercising free speech in a manner that the PRC government finds disagreeable, and also spreads propaganda whose sole purpose is to sow divisions within the United States,”
Read Also: In the ‘grievous’ killing of Jayland Walker, no charges will be brought against US officers
